Images 1–15

Vast is heaven and earth, no knowing where they end. Sun and moon turn in their circuit, and having gone round, begin again.

From Pangu down to Xiyi, tigers fought and dragons struggled — strange business indeed. Grasp that the true meaning lies in the turning, and try reckoning the hidden mechanism for the age after Tang.

Shengtan says: this image concerns how order and disorder have caused each other from antiquity to now, as sun and moon come and go and yin and yang give way by turns — which is just Confucius's meaning when he said that a hundred generations could be known in advance. The red one is the sun; the white one

is the moon. Once there are sun and moon, day and night are formed; once there are day and night, cold and heat are divided; once there are cold and heat, the calendar is fixed; once there is a calendar, lines of succession are distinguished; and once there are

lines of succession, rise and fall become visible.

Clustered, the swelling fruits, no one making their number plain. Each fruit, one kernel — at once the new and the old.

All things are born out of earth. At twice-nine they first bear fruit. One rule settles the Central Plain. When yin waxes, yang is first spent.

Shengtan says: the plate of fruit is Li's fruit — the surname of the house. Their number is twenty-one: from Tang Gaozu down to Zhaoxuan there were twenty-one sovereigns in all. 'Twice nine' points to the Tang mandate lasting two hundred

and eighty-nine years. 'Yin waxing' points to Wu Zhao holding the state — licentious and benighted, throwing the government into disorder and coming close to ending the Tang. Afterwards the good order of the Kaiyuan reign was enough to ⟦match⟧ the Zhenguan, and yet the Precious Consort brought on

disaster: the imperial carriage was driven into exile, and favoured women rose one after another, the Liangdi consort following her — which was likewise, from the first, an image of yin waxing.

Sun and moon stand in the sky, shining down on the earth below. Blurred and hard to tell apart — not civil, and martial too.

Having sought the Void King through and through, form and semblance are void. One morning she entered the sovereign's palace again. The remaining branches stripped away, the root is still there. Cock-a-doodle — the morning hen. Which one is the cock?

Shengtan says: this image concerns Wu Zhao holding the state. She deposed Zhongzong to Fangzhou and killed off the Tang imperial clan almost to a man. Early on the Wu woman shaved her head and became a nun, and so there is the line about seeking the Void King through

and through. Gaozong deposed Empress Wang and set her up in her place, and so there is the omen of 'cock-a-doodle, the morning hen — which one is the cock?'

The flier does not fly. The runner runs of himself. It beats its wings on the high ridge, and so is able to have descendants.

The Azure Maiden's power ran wide; her grip was strange indeed. As far as the eye could see, the eighteen branches lay desolate. It fell to the monkeys to put their strength together — the great tree already leaning was held up by their hands.

Shengtan says: this image concerns Di Renjie recommending Zhang Jianzhi and four others, who turned the Zhou back into the Tang. ○ Empress Wu once dreamt of a parrot with both wings broken. Di Renjie said: 'Wu

is Your Majesty's surname; raise up your two sons and the two wings will beat again.' The five monkeys point to Zhang Jianzhi and the four others.

Willow catkins fly. The road to Shu is hard. Cut the bamboo from the flute and only then see it. With not one clerk left, there is peace.

The war drums of Yuyang come through Tong Pass. On this day the sovereign favours Sword Mountain. If Wood-and-Yi should meet the Ghost-under-the-Mountain, then here the golden ring is buried.

Shengtan says: one saddle points to An Lushan; one history book points to Shi Siming; one woman lying dead on the ground is the Precious Consort dying at the Mawei post-station. As for 'cut the bamboo from the flute'

— it is that Suzong took the throne, and the An–Shi rebellion was put down.

Not the capital, yet the capital. Not the sovereign, yet the sovereign. The murk once gone, sun and moon shine again.

The great banner towers, planted in the two capitals. Today the imperial carriage travels east once more. Heaven and earth remade, the people rejoice. Within a year or two, great peace is in sight.

Shengtan says: this image concerns Minghuang returning to the western capital. ○ In the ninth month of the second year of Zhide, Prince Guangping Chu and Guo Ziyi recovered the western capital; in the tenth month they recovered the eastern capital. The An–

Shi rebellion was wholly quelled. In the twelfth month they welcomed the Retired Emperor back to the western capital, and so the text says 'remade'.

Banners and staves of office fill my eyes. Mountains and rivers cramp my feet. The guests who broke the pass came all at once, and suddenly set the Central Plain weeping.

Mole crickets and ants have always been enough to burst a dyke. The six palaces locked deep, the dream is all awry. Behind layered gates, gong and drum hold the breath of war. Small grasses spring up, and the earth-mouth cries.

Shengtan says: this image concerns the regional commanders running unchecked, and the Tibetans invading the Central Plain.

The comet bloodies the central land. He who broke the rebels becomes a rebel in turn. Cluster on cluster, the plum blossom flies. The emperor says: to move is greatly auspicious.

The Son of Heaven eats dust, his horse's head turned east. And there, sure enough, three champions squat in Guanzhong. One lone army halts, and the altars are made safe. Within and without, the merit of arm and hand is gathered in.

Shengtan says: this image concerns the disorder of the Jianzhong era. The three men are Li Xilie, Zhu Ci and Li Huaiguang. Li Huaiguang, for the merit of breaking Zhu Ci, was resented by Lu Qi, and thereupon

rebelled — hence 'he who broke the rebels becomes a rebel in turn'. The three men assaulted the palace gates one after another; Dezong's carriage went into exile; and it fell to Li Sheng, with a lone army, to recover the capital, so that the altars were secure

once more.

Neither white nor black. Under the grass-head a man comes out. He borrows a single branch, and blood flies across the whole sky.

Above ten thousand heads a hero rises. Blood dyes the rivers and hills; the sun's colour is red. A whole tree of plum blossom is dimmed. And pity — the nest overturned also comes to nothing.

Shengtan says: this image concerns Huang Chao raising rebellion. ○ The Tang mandate came down to Zhaozong, whom Zhu Wen murdered in order to set himself up, changing the dynastic name to Liang. Wen had been of Huang Chao's old faction, and so the text says 'the nest overturned'.

— and also comes to nothing.

Broad and open, the Central Plain. None can withstand the eight-ox. The waters of the Si do not wash it clean. There is blood, and no head.

One empress and two sovereigns all ascend and depart. The four seas, boundless, are one household at last. Not only did I father him — he kills me too. Turn your head: the Li child's blossom is there still.

Shengtan says: this image concerns Zhu Wen murdering Empress He, and the sovereigns Zhaoxuan and Zhaozong, and setting himself up — what is meant by 'one empress and two sovereigns'. Before long he was murdered by his second son Yougui. This is

the sense of the ode's third line. Li Keyong's son Cunxu avenged his father, destroyed the Liang in a hundred battles, and renamed the dynasty Later Tang. This is the sense of the ode's fourth line.

Five men divine together. It is neither emolument nor blessing. Take them together and speak of it: joy, anger, grief, delight.

Dragon and snake fight for thirty years. One day Tongguang goes straight up to heaven. Having reached the hall of heaven, fine sport — and a million eastern troops enter the Qin plain.

Shengtan says: this image points to the actor Guo Congqian raising a mutiny, in which the Tang sovereign was struck by a stray arrow.

A lump — one stone. He calls another man father. He rules twice-eight prefectures, and they are no longer Tang soil.

The sign of revolt shows first in many mouths. Going out and coming in, there is no master. Whoever tied the bell must untie it himself. The father dies, and the son dies too.

Shengtan says: this image concerns Shi Jingtang seeking rescue from the Khitan. The Tang sovereign sent Zhang Jingda to attack Shi Jingtang; Jingtang, having no other course, sought rescue from the Khitan, serving

them with the rites due to a father, and bribing them with the sixteen prefectures of You and Ji. The Jin emperor's enthronement was indeed the Khitan's doing — yet it was by the Khitan that he perished in the end, and so there is the omen of tying and untying the bell.

The Han waters run dry. The sparrow flies high. Flying to and fro — where does it stop? The high mountain is not so low as the city wall.

A hundred sparrows fly above the water. Ninety-nine pass over to Shanxi. Only one treads and breaks its foot, roosts high, and alone preens its feathers.

Shengtan says: this image concerns the Zhou sovereign Guo Wei seizing the Han and setting himself up. Guo Wei was of low birth in his youth, and the world called him Guo the Sparrow.

The plum tree takes root and shoots. The pomegranate scatters its flowers wide. Dry wood meeting spring lasts only an instant, letting the world contend in glory.

Metal, wood, water, fire, earth — the round is finished. Thirteen children, five princely houses. Brilliance sees a day of great peace once more. At fifty-three the fortune does not pass.

Shengtan says: this image concerns Zhou Shizong, who received the mandate from Guo Wei and was the end of the Five Dynasties. Shizong's surname was Chai and his given name Rong. He was brilliant, decisive in war, and diligent in government. It is a pity that his work

was unfinished when he died. The Five Dynasties lasted fifty-three years in all, with eight surnames and thirteen sovereigns. The ode's meaning is plain.

Heaven has sun and moon. Earth has mountains and rivers. Within the seas, confusion. The father behind, the son in front.

Fighting in the Central Plain has not yet ceased. How many can sleep sound with weapons at hand? Within the realm there is a true Son of Heaven who sweeps the host of demons away, and the sun's face shows.

Shengtan says: this image concerns the last making of the Five Dynasties, when those who held territory were scattered like stars on a board. Only the Qian house of Wu-Yue — Qian Liu, four generations — made some attempt at order; and the Li house of Southern Tang — Li □, three generations — had some acquaintance with

culture. All the rest were licentious, benighted and cruel. Taizu rose up and rescued the people from fire and flood. Taizu's childhood name was Fragrant Child, and the one holding a broom is the sweeping away of the host of contenders.