The Chinese Kafka Part 1 E-Book

Mark Obama Ndesandjo

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

his book is the first of a series of essays inspired by the poems of the Tang Poet Li Shangyin (813-858 AD), and includes many insghtful observations on the author's personal multicultural journey through America, Asia and Africa. The bilingual book also includes the author's beautiful Chinese calligraphy and a groundbreaking analysis on the relevance of poetry to the existential dislocations of our modern era. it is an excellent resource for students of English and Chinese, as well as those interested in exploring other cultures. Li Shangyin is one of the most fascinating of poets and this book includes historical background on the poet as well as introductory and explanatory notes by the translator. For over 1200 years, scholars have attempted to understand, let alone translate, Li Shangyin's poems. At least four different schools of thought have developed. Firstly, his poems are reflections on political patrons and a failed career. Secondly, they are thinly veiled political satires of the Court and political factions. Thirdly, they are stories of actual affairs with Court ladies and Taoist priestesses. Finally, they are admirable vehicles of mystery and beauty. My interpretations include elements of all the above, but are also a synthesis of sentiments - the poet's (as Mark sees him) and his own, of which music is a core part. This is particularly appropriate with Li Shangyin. His poetry is a labyrinth of passionate images, almost musical in sound and sequencing. They are at once ebullient, sad, loving, hateful, spiteful, sneering, and religious - a cornucopia of musical words that sing across the ages.

Leseprobe

Praise For The Chinese Kafka*

“Mark Obama Ndesandjo does for the Chinese poem what Cezanne did for the apple – gives it a body and a soul, and typically he adds an affectionate and witty vision.”

“At last – a book about Chinese history that is readable and witty”

‘For delicious noshing, The Chinese Kafka books are hard to beat.”

“Witty, intelligent, scholarly…an abundance of stories and anecdotes… a joy.”

“This is more than just a book, it is an

experience.”

“ At last, an Obama book that isn’t about Obama.”

*Testimonials of popular politicians

This edition published 2020

The Chinese Kafka Part 1

Author: Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo

©2020 Mark Okoth Ndesandjo

Cover Art: Calligraphy by Mark O. Ndesandjo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or

other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying

and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without

permission in writing from the author.

www.markobamandesandjo.com

About Mark Obama Ndesandjo

Mark Obama Ndesandjo is an American pianist, composer, writer, artist and businessman. He grew up in Nairobi and received his musical training from Bernard Smith of the University of Nairobi, Margaretta Davies (the first pupil of Wilhelm Kempff), Arlene Cole and Judith Stillman of Brown University, and George Barth of Stanford University. He was awarded the highest prizes for 3 years straight at the Kenya Music Festival. A long time Shenzhen resident, he has a BSc in physics from Brown University, an MSc in physics from Stanford University, and an EMBA from Emory University. He is an HSK L7 Mandarin speaker and an avid Chinese brush calligrapher. His 2009 novel, Nairobi to Shenzhen, was critically acclaimed and a global sensation. His next book, the memoir An Obama’s Journey (Lyons Press) has also been released in China (People’s Literature Publishing House). His published works also include translations into English of the complete poems of Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin, as well as four music CDs of his piano performances and compositions, including Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and the Schubert Wanderer Fantasy. In 2016 he was appointed a professor at Beijing Normal University.

Mark is proud of his philanthropic work. In 2013 he established a foundation (www.markobamandesandjo.com) to bring art to children. Notable past activities include raising 300,000 USD with the Sheen Hok charitable group to treat amblyopia in kids, raising over 30,000 USD for UNICEF to help  children in disaster areas, with Sheraton Hotels, raising over 130,000 USD for orphans in Shenzhen and medical care for kids with terminal heart disease (with the American Chamber of Commerce). Most recently Mark helped raise funds with Chinese friends to purchase and donate 30,000 surgical masks to hospitals in Nairobi and the USA.

In 2019, Mark began a partnership with the Mozarteum Foundation, based in Salzburg. In collaboration with Mozarteum University, violins were donated to needy schools in Kibera, Kenya, including one violin from the Music School of Liechtenstein. Mark’s many honors include an Honorary Image Ambassadorship by China for his work bringing art to orphans. He is an Image Ambassador for the Special Olympics and Image Ambassador for the United Nations Committee on Combating Desertification.

Preface

Mark Obama Ndesandjo - An American in Li Shangyin's Kingdom of Poetry

By Mr Qin Bingeng

We often call Mark Obama Ndesandjo just ‘Mark’. As his book The Poems Of Li Shangyin is about to be released to the world, he has asked me to write a preface, and I have gladly accepted. We have been friends for more than ten years, whether in casual day to day interactions, or in enjoying discussions of Chinese culture. I had no reason to refuse. Strictly speaking, Mark is not a professional researcher of Chinese classical literature, and his translation level is left for the professionals to comment on. However, from his passionate and emotional point of view, he possesses a unique and indisputable understanding of Yishan’s poetry. The English translation of Chinese classical poetry (as well as other classic styles) has always been a difficult task for both foreigners and Chinese. Li Shangyin's poems are particularly so.

Many years ago, some Chinese theorists said that Li Shangyin was a 1000-year early incarnation of the 19th century French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarme. It is not easy to translate Chinese classical poetry into English, and Li Shangyin's poems pile layer upon layer of difficulties! But Mark has completed them all! I speak from the bottom of my heart when I say it is very hard to express my feelings!

Mark's paternal grandparents were Kenyans, and his father, Barack Obama Senior, went to college in the United States. Barack Obama Senior, intelligent and charming, married a white woman, Stanley Ann Dunham, while studying at the University of Hawaii, who gave birth to Barack Obama - the 44th president of the United States. Two years later, Harvard student Obama divorced Dunham and fell in love with a white woman, Ruth Baker. He returned home in 1964, married Ruth, who gave birth to Mark the following year, and later to Mark’s brother, David. In 1972, Ruth divorced Barack Obama Senior, and remarried. Simeon Ndesandjo, who was a presenter for the Voice of Kenya, created a loving family for Ruth's mother and sons, bought Mark a piano, and encouraged him to learn under the guidance of his mother. Later, with the further guidance of his grandmother, he would become an accomplished pianist. After graduating from high school, Mark went to Brown University to study, where he received a bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics. He then graduated from Stanford University with a Master's degree in Physics, and later received a Master's degree in Business Administration from Emory University. Mark inherited his father's high IQ and graduated with distinction at all three universities.

After graduating from college, Mark worked at well-known American companies such as AT&T and Lucent. After 911, Mark lost his job as the economy crashed. Yet, it was also an important turning point in his life - to look east. He came to China in 2001. Attracted by the exuberance of a once closed socialist country, Mark’s new life began to take root. He taught English at a school, and later started his own business consulting firm.

Later that year, he met a beautiful, kind, pure and lovely girl from Henan Province, Xuehua. After 7 years of courtship, they married in 2008. They are attached to each other and manage their own business together. They live a sweet, quiet and happy life in Shenzhen.

Mark has a great gift for languages. After several years of hard study, he was able to communicate with people in fluent Mandarin and quickly passed the HSK 7 exam. He is fascinated by Chinese culture, and intensively studies and understands such works as Chu Yuan’s 100 Heavenly Questions, Sun Wu’s The Art of War, The 36 Strategies etc – works which even most Chinese do not themselves understand.

I met Mark in 2009. At that time, I helped organize a young people’s charity piano concert with Chen Sa, a young pianist. His wonderful performance brought the house down. He was already a pianist who had published several CDs.

He told me that he was studying Chinese calligraphy, and as an early member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, I said I could give him guidance if needed. One day, Mark held a dinner party and invited my wife and I to his home. He took out all his calligraphy exercises and asked me for advice. I immediately saw he had a good foundation. I gave him some direction on the positioning of the characters, his manner of rendered strokes and dots, and the overall presentation. I urged him to continue his studies.

In return, a few months later, my wife and I invited him to our home. He brought his calligraphy of the 36 Strategies of War. What a surprise! The level had improved considerably. I said that with his talent, if he adhered to three to five years of hard training, he would be successful.

In May 2011, Mark's semi-autobiographical Chinese novel From Nairobi to Shenzhen was published by People's Literature Publishing House. He and Xuehua sent the new book to my house. The title page of the book said It is so hard to be with you, so hard to leave you. I felt that he was a very sensitive and righteous person, and I thought that he probably liked Li Shangyin's poetry, so we discussed a lot about Li Shangyin's poems. To illustrate cursive calligraphy, I showed him my version of Li Shangyin's An Epistle From The North On a Wet Night. He examined it over and over again, and as we discussed it together, I asked him to write the poem, which he did, off the top of his head. I posted it on the wall. His work was beautiful and elegant, full of rhythm, and the strokes were easy and fluid. I took a photo and posted it to my WeChat circle of friends, and got a lot of likes. I couldn’t believe it was from a foreigner. The next day, Mark took part in a public service event. He again created the work on the spot. He was praised by the audience and the event was broadcasted by Shenzhen TV News that evening.

Mark’s cursive calligraphy recalls Wang Xizhi, and his free script evokes Huang Tingjian. These days, his calligraphy style has already matured. He invited me twice to accompany him to Xinhua English video interviews where he grasped the inkbrush with deep and sophisticated strokes, full of self-confidence, and spread the message of the beauty of Chinese calligraphy to the world.

After 2013, Mark was completely fascinated with Li Shangyin's poetry. I selected and sent him Zheng Zaiying's Complete Collection of Li Shangyin's Poems. Later, Xuehua told me that Mark loved the book. He always carried it with him. He carried it everywhere, and whenever he had a moment he would flip it open, examine, annotate and, later, translate the poems - until he rubbed the 544 pages of the book to pieces. By then, the famous poems were already deep in his heart, and well known quotes would come in handy. Mark had become an American living in Li Shangyin's poetry kingdom.

Figure 1: Mr Qin Bingeng displaying the author's improvisation on a Shangyin poem. in Shenzhen 2011.

Li Shangyin was an outstanding poet in the late Tang Dynasty. At the age of ten, he lost his father, and his family’s fortunes declined. His life was difficult, and he was helped by his teacher Ling Huchu to enter and pass the Imperial examinations. Later, he married Wang Maoyuan's daughter. However, his teacher and his father-in-law belonged to two opposing political parties, which threw him into the turbulent strife of a party struggle, in which his talent was ignored by both. His life was poor, sorrowful and sad. Often displaced and without means, he died at the age of 47. Due to the dangerous circumstances of his life, many of his poems are obscure, metaphorical and mystical.

The great sage Liang Qichao used to say: “Whatever one says about Yishan's poems such as The Ornamented Zither, Jade City, The Shrine to the Goddess etc, one can take them apart sentence by sentence and still try to explain. I don’t even understand the meaning of the text. But I think it's beautiful, and it gives my soul fresh happiness. It is important to realize that beauty is multifaceted, and beauty is mysterious.” That's very discerning. On the basis of his poetic achievements in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin formed a unique artistic style rich in symbolism and metaphor. His artistic achievements in poetry reached the apex of Tang poetry, and many of his works have become classics.

Mark was deeply attracted by the beauty of Li Shangyin's poetry, and he spent a lot of energy translating the poems into English. He hopes that more people in the English-speaking world will enjoy Li Shangyin's poems. In the book, Mark also distributes 28 calligraphy works inspired by them, showing his achievements on the one hand, and increasing readers' interest in reading on the other. For example, in World’s End, the layout of his calligraphy looks like a painting, but look close to see how the sizes of the words and the stroke thickness change in vivid and interesting ways. Even as the brush strokes are difficult to resolve, the first and last strokes look at each other, the line, pulse, breath, and momentum integrate smoothly, and blood and flesh are gently mingled. Look again at the Untitled poem: The light above the rafters sparkles like jade, the water flower emerges. Cai Yong's daughter said of her father's calligraphy, "There are two ways of writing. One is the sharp peck, one is the hesitant gallop. To combine both, that’s the beauty of it.” Mark's work has a good grasp of the relationship between this sharp peck and hesitant gallop. I agree with Mr. Dong Jinhan, a famous musician, who said, "Music is a flowing art, and calligraphy is solidified music." As a musician, Mark holds the brush with his harpist's hands and creates frozen music with a toneless rhythm. Mark is a Western scholar, writer, pianist and calligrapher. He immersed himself in Chinese calligraphy with the thought of blending Chinese and Western. He studied the ancients of China, but did not rigidly adhere to the ancients. In his charming brushwork one sees the shadows of Wang Xizhi and Huang Tingjian. But each work has its distinct and unique personality, reflecting a fusion of Chinese and Western learning, seamlessly displaying a modest and content artistic style.

Mark straddles different countries, different races, different religions, different cultural backgrounds, and through thousands of years of history, loves Chinese classical literature. He has lingered over Li Shangyin's poetry – revealing the infinite charm of Chinese culture. Mark has said he "has a great dream - I can't find a better place to reflect than here." At a time when the United Nations has just declared Chinese a common language in the world, the official publication of this book will play a very important role in promoting Chinese culture. I would like to thank Mark for his hard work.

Qin Bingeng at his home in Shenzhen, China, July 16, 2020 (the author is a Chinese calligrapher and former dean of Shenzhen Youth College)

Qin Binggeng, celebrated philosopher and calligrapher, was born in Guangxi, China, and is of the Zhuang nationality. In early 1981, he participated in the establishment of the third National Calligraphy Association of Colleges and Universities, joined the Guangxi Branch of the Chinese Calligraphy Association in 1982 and joined the Chinese Calligraphy Association in 1994. In 2014, Tianjin people's Art Publishing House, published his collection of works of Chinese calligraphy and painting. His works have been accepted by collectors at home and abroad, and have been disseminated widely. Some commentators said: "Through Qin Binggeng’s calligraphy, there is not only ancient poetry, but also Wechat excerpts. It lets people not only feel the passion of the ancient ways, but also peeks into today's fashions. Looking at the long sky, strokes seem to flow in time, from ancient times to the present.” His slogans were used for the 26th World University Games (Starting Here, Different And Wonderful), the plaque of the Universiade Center, the main venue of the Universiade, and the Shenzhen volunteer logo Shenzhen Volunteer. He added beautiful scenery to the World University Games held in Shenzhen, in which Chinese and foreign college athletes participated. His ancient Zhuang essay, Peace, was on display at United Nations headquarters and was appreciated by friends from all over the world. He visited the United States with the Colorful China exhibition group and successively performed live calligraphy performances in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and so on, so that the American people could directly feel the magic and charm of Chinese calligraphy. Qin Binggeng has served as secretary of the League Committee of Guangxi University for Nationalities, president of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region League School, dean of Shenzhen Youth College, and deputy inspector of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League. He was elected eighth member of the all-China Youth Federation, chairman of the supervisory board of the International Yan Huang Culture Research Association, third and fourth members of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and president of the Shenzhen Municipal Association for the Promotion of National Unity and Development. He won the honorary title of National Unity and Progress Model individual awarded by the State Council, and his biography was included in the Special Administrative Region Character Records published by Guangdong people's Publishing House in 2012.

(Abridged translation: Mark Obama Ndesandjo)

Author’s Foreword

This book is a collection of essays originally published in 2018-2019 on my website www.markobamandesandjo.com. In a world consumed with the coronavirus and the march away from multiculturalism, these snapshots are uniquely personal documents. My experience as a biracial American who has managed to finally fold several cultures into my unique identity is one of fits and starts, and clashing pieces.

I hope this book can offer a fresh window into how East (China) , West (USA) and South (Kenya) can shed light on each other’s cultures in a positive way.

Each section begins with a concise rumination, followed by an associated Li Shangyin poem in Chinese as well as the pin yin pronunciation, and my English interpretation.

I have included my essay Fourteen Themes on the Tang Poet’s Aesthetics. Although the essay refers to Li Shangyin specifically, I dare to hypothesize that many, or all of these themes, form the DNA of traditional Chinese poetry in general.

A full translation of Chu Yuan’s Heavenly Questions as well as some of my own Chinese calligraphy round out the collection.

Mark Obama Ndesandjo

Shenzhen, 2020

About the Language: The Art of Translation and Chinese Calligraphy

In Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, there is an ancient, brick-paved street bounded by tall, white walls. Except for the scuffling sound of leather shoes on the sun bleached sidewalk, and the distant muffled cries of children, it is a quiet street. Hidden behind the non-descript facade is a house, now a museum, that once belonged to Yan Fu (严复), a respected Qing dynasty scholar known for his efforts to bring Western culture and the English language to China. On a wall inside hangs a work of calligraphy that admonishes writers to reflect the spirit and the mood of the translated work, to write above and beyond the literal meanings of words. It references three cardinal principles: Truthfulness (信), Expressiveness (达),and Grace (雅).

With that in mind, I started to express Li Shangyin’s poems in English, the results of which are included in this book. Not being a professional translator, I hesitate to use the word translations, and instead describe them as interpretations. I also use this word for another reason.

For over 1000 years scholars have attempted to understand, let alone translate Li Shangyin’s poems, and at least four different schools of thought have developed: Firstly, his poems are reflections on political patrons and a failed career; Secondly, they are thinly veiled political satires of the Court and political factions. Thirdly, they are stories of actual affairs with Court ladies and Taoist priestesses; and Finally, that they are admirable vehicles of mystery and beauty. My interpretations include elements of all the above, but are also a synthesis of sentiments, the poet’s ( as I see him) and mine, of which music is a core part. This is particularly appropriate with Li Shangyin. His poetry is a labyrinth of passionate images, almost musical in sound and sequencing. They are at once ebullient, sad, loving, hateful, spiteful, sneering, and religious - a cornucopia of musical words that sing across the ages.

Above all, his poetry shares the amorphousness of music - nothing is clear or concrete. Instead, Li Shangyin expresses broad sentiments - timorousness in the face of his lover, the bittersweet regret of having failed to meet his old, dying Taoist teacher, the frustrations of ambitious, smart and beautiful women trapped in a feudal society, the sadness of a lost, promising youth. My interpretations are often musical variations on emotional themes, which, taken literally, are largely untranslatable. In translation, the moment a mood is captured, the words slip from one’s grasp. How wonderful it is that it is so! Just as great music is always beyond the ability of any performer to fully express it, so is great poetry always broader in meaning than the work of any interpreter or translator. 

Therefore, wanting to make my writing more global in interest, I asked myself how my interpretations of his poems could incorporate a Western, musical element. After writing each interpretation, I felt something could be added to the book, such as an overt link to the West, or to Western culture, particularly music.

Firstly (Ecco epistolam!1), my musty sheaf of adolescent writing rescued me! For example, the theme of unrequited love, dominant in his poems, also ran through a short story I had written about the composer Frederic Chopin and his lover George Sand many years ago. To take another example, the solitude of David Caspar Friedrich’s oil painting Das Eismeer, paralleled some of the landscape images evoked by the Wu Ti (Untitled Poems). Several, but not all, of the interpretations relate to these earlier writings.

Secondly, I decided to write stories that included Shenzhen, the newest of modern China’s cities. This city of over 10 million immigrants has been my home for many years, and is China’s youngest, and perhaps most economically progressive, city.

Blending my imagistic thoughts of yesteryear with the interpretations of the present, passionately and with the benefit of a personal window into this amazing culture, I developed this book. My interpretations and stories are intended to give people around the world, whether a farmer in Italy, or a cab driver in the Bronx, or a student in a Nairobi high school, a sense of the beauty of Chinese poetry and modern China. I hope it will also appeal to young people in China and the world who are unaware of Chinese classical poetry, and want to improve their English language skills.

About the Chinese Calligraphy and Language

Chinese calligraphy or shufa (书法) is a unique and rich art form more than three thousand years old, and has evolved and influenced Asian art in innumerable ways. The tools are simple: rice paper, a soft lamb hair brush and black ink. Although Chinese has more than 40,000 characters, it only uses seven basic strokes. Because of the malleability of the hair brush and the innumerable permutations of each character, it is quite difficult to master. If the stroke is too fast, the result is an ugly white gap. If too slow, the ink bleeds over the paper. Ideal calligraphy, therefore, is almost like dancing in its blending of speed, direction and pressure. I have included in this book Chinese ink calligraphy I wrote to celebrate Shangyin’s poems, mostly of the Untitled Poems. My hope is that some readers will be interested enough to explore shufa which, I believe, like all great art, belongs to the world.

In parts of this book Chinese words are written using the pinyin system of pronunciation. Mandarin Chinese pronunciation uses 4 tones in pronouncing syllables. Depending upon the tones the same syllable will have different meanings.

First tone (e.g. ā). This is a flat, level high-pitched toneSecond tone (e.g. á) This is an ascending pitchThird tone (e.g. ǎ) This is a deep, centered pitchFourth tone (e.g. à) This is a sharp pitch, like a quick accent

For example, the original Chinese from a poem by the great Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai may be written (using simplified characters):

床前明月光, 疑是地上霜

(Before the well2 moonlight so bright/ I imagine it is frost on the ground.

In the Pin Yin system these lines are written using English characters for ease of pronunciation, as follows:

chuáng qián míng yuè guāng, yí shì dì shàng shuāng

Historical Background: About Li Shangyin3

In his wanderings around China as an official of the feudal government, Li Shangyin turned to poems and essays to express themes of love, nostalgia, homesickness, and an appreciation of nature. The core of his work, his poems, concern the dichotomy between enduring love or friendship, and the temporality of all things.

In his 45 years (813AD - 858AD), Li Shangyin wrote many marvelous poems, on diverse topics, from his struggles with internal government politics to alleged affairs with prostitutes, imperial courtesans and Taoist nuns. His output was perhaps in the thousands, but many poems are lost and about 600 remain.

The waning days of the Tang empire were marked by a secessionist revolt that was successfully quelled by the Emperor Wuzong. Poisoned by his Taoist priestess, the emperor was succeeded by Emperor Xuanzong, whose new policies reversed Wuzong’s successes in arresting the decline of the Empire.

He was born in what is now Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, an area traditionally referred to as the ‘Mother of China’ (中国母亲)4. Li Shangyin had studied the classics from an early age. At 17, he was drawn into military service on the staff of Chu Linghu, a famous general allied with the Niudang (牛党)confucian sect. At the time, this sect competed with the Lidang (李党)sect for the emperor's favor. A few years into his apprenticeship in Chu’s military governorship, Chu was transferred to the capital as Deputy Cabinet Chief, a high sounding position but actually a sinecure, because he was not made an Imperial Counselor at the same time. When Li was 25, Chu died. Although the son of Li Shangyin’s mentor Chu Linghu was summoned to the Court as Imperial Counselor, he provided the poet no career assistance.

In AD 837, Li passed the Entrants Examination, qualifying for Imperial appointment, and joined the military staff of Wang Maoyuan (王茂元), a member of the Lidang sect. He eventually married his daughter. However,on account of his close relationship with his first mentor, who was seen as something of an iconoclast, he was never fully trusted by many government officials. It was as though a lifetime US Republican Party intellectual married into the family of a prominent Democratic Party leader. He would spend his life in fear of arbitrary government policies and intrigues. Throughout, due to the death or sudden career changes of his patrons or for other reasons, he would be shuffled between low level postings, and regularly denied the promotions to which he aspired.

After some time in Chang’An (present-day Xi'an), he joined his magistrate uncle in Haizhou, not far from the capital. Although his time there was brief (His uncle died within the year), he avoided the turmoil of an unsuccessful revolt against the power of the eunuchs that took place in the capital.

After years of moving from post to post, without a main mentor who could consistently guide him, Li finally joined the staff of a rising governor, Liu Zhongying in Sichuan in 851. At last valued by the leadership (Liu provided Li with a large signing bonus just to join his team) Li stayed for over four years. This was the only time when he wrote poems expressing happiness with his job and his colleagues. When Liu moved up to a lucrative central financial post, Li moved with him. However, just when things were looking up, Li’s health failed, and he resigned his post in AD858, dying shortly afterwards.

Throughout his life the factional division among the ministerial officials was less ominous for the Tang dynasty than the confrontation between the emperor and the eunuchs in control of the palace, and the officials outside the palace. Both sides would seek sympathizers among the military governors, until, in a final orgy of destruction, the once glorious Tang Dynasty succumbed to invasion and disintegration.

Fourteen Themes on the Tang Poet’s Aesthetics

Solitude, Exams And An Escape Into The Imagination

Great men live alone, and solitude is their constant companion. The greatest of sages pass their lives in obscurity, for fame is mostly a consequence of vanity, of a narcissism that eats oneself, and tosses out the pieces for others to devour. It is perhaps by chance, like meeting a bear in the woods, that one finds such individuals and changes one’s life.

He who transcends solitude, such as through art or mysticism (which includes the religion), but particularly through art (because there is talent involved) attains a sense of identity that quickly unfolds, and is actualized rapidly, particularly as one grows older. Why older? Because one keenly senses always being on the edge of a discovery, of a penultimate phenomenon, such as an original idea that is imminent but unrealizable. Then, a hunger forms the seeds of an autumnal renaissance.

In the Tang, as in many periods of Chinese Imperialism, every artist was raised in part to serve the nation, or to serve family. Some exceptional artists were denied both, and in that case solitude and individualism set their destiny apart. Li Shangyin was for most of his life a low ranking civil servant, and chafed at his inability to serve the nation to his fullest capacity. Much of his adult life was spent traveling on official business, away from his family, to whom missives and second reports were the only connections. The brilliance and darkness of his time was forced upon him. In his solitude, he had no recourse but to refer to self, and forge a path alone. His wish to isolate himself in a Daoist mountain cave was often alluded to in his poems, but thankfully for us, never realized.

What other themes do we find in his writing?