Song of the Bronze Immortal Leaving the Han

In the 8th month of the 1st year of the Qinglong Era,1 Emperor Ming of Wei ordered his palace official to move an immortal of the Emperor Wu of Han2 south by cart. This immortal, holding a dew-plate, had been installed in front of the palace hall.

The immortal started its journey once the palace official dismantled and removed the plate, whereupon it shed silent tears.

Upon which Li Changji, scion of the Tang royal house, composed “Song of the Bronze Immortal Leaving the Han.”

In fall the youth Liu came lightly by his flourishing mausoleum3,
One heard his horse whinny in the night; he left no trace at dawn.

The rich scent of autumn is hemmed by osmanthus4 and balustrades,
Thirty-six palaces, all, mossing over jade-green.5

The procession begins its thousand miles, led by the man of Wei,
Out the East Gate, a sour wind like arrows to the eye.

The Han moon was lured outside the royal walls in vain;
Our tears turn to drops of lead in imperial solemnity.

Fading orchids in mourning garb6 line the Xianyang road,
If the heavens too could feel, the heavens would grow old.

Bearing our plate of dew alone through moonlit desolation,
River and city7 far behind, the voice of waves grown small.

金铜仙人辞汉歌

魏明帝青龙元年八月,诏宫官牵车西取汉孝武捧露盘仙人,欲立致前殿。宫官既拆盘,仙人临载,乃潸然泪下。唐诸王孙李长吉遂作《金铜仙人辞汉歌》。

茂陵刘郎秋风客,
夜闻马嘶晓无迹。
画栏桂树悬秋香,
三十六宫土花碧。
魏官牵车指千里,
东关酸风射眸子。
空将汉月出宫门,
忆君清泪如铅水。
衰兰送客咸阳道,
天若有情天亦老。
携盘独出月荒凉,
渭城已远波声小。

Gushiwensday

The Song of the Departure of the Gold and Bronze Immortal: the clear memory of the emperor brings on tears like liquid lead.

Notes

Li He, Tang superstar “demonic poet”, wrote this poem en route from Chang’an to Luoyang – the same route the statue was taking. (The statue, in actual history, never made it to Luoyang and got left in Ba City, due to the troublesome size or manifested tears, who knows.) The poet was leaving the capital bc he had to quit his post due to chronic illness. (You can see more of my research notes in my tumblr tag for this poem.)

There are 3 dynasties, 3 nested layers of history, at play here.

Emperor Wu (“martial”) - birth name Liu Che - the Han dynasty flourished under his rule due to all the conquering and wealth; like many emperors before and after him, he became obsessed with attaining immortality. hence the poet calling his statue “bronze immortal”. According to the commentary in my 1983 Chinese-lang Tang anthology by one 朱世英 Zhu Shiying, the statue this emperor commissioned of himself was enormous: 20m (丈) tall and 10m (围) in circumference. The “dew-plate” is a dish designed to collect morning dew as an offering to the heavens (in hopes of exchange for immortality?) - they’re found on top of some Buddhist pagodas also.

Emperor Ming - birth name Cao Rui, grandson of the Cao Cao - 300 years later in the Wei dynasty, he ordered people to remove many Han artifacts from the imperial palace to Luoyang, an expensive and dangerous affair, replacing them with his own commissioned statues, etc etc. The “palace official” refers to a court eunuch - not sure if this is meant to be a specific person.

Li Changji, scion of the Tang royal house - the poet himself (Changji was his courtesy name). i wasn’t able to find a genealogy but i do know his was a minor branch of the Tang dynasty founding line; he was quite poor and unsuccessful at getting a good court position (poets is the same). You can read more wild facts about his life on his wikipedia page.

The Tang poet is imagining the statue in the Wei remembering the living Han emperor. History repeats. Rulers grow dissolute and wasteful. Dynasties break, unite, then break again.


  1. 1st year of the Qinglong Era: 237 CE. ↩︎

  2. Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty died in 87 BCE. ↩︎

  3. This first couplet seems unmoored from the rest of the poem. Is it a ghostly vision? a memory? The youth Liu, Liu-lang, is a ballsy way of referring to Emperor Wu. He’s visiting his own royal tomb, Maoling Mausoleum (it’s on wiki - highly rec the satellite photos, it’s still standing), literally translated as “flourishing mausoleum”. He started constructing it in his 2nd year of rule - he was 16 years old. ↩︎

  4. 桂树:Commonly mistranslated as “cassia” (chinese cinnamon) due to its prominence in traded goods, but in poetic context usually means 桂花 osmanthus - the smell is peaches, not cinnamon. The blooms are associated with the much-vaunted imperial examinations in eighth month (around September); sort of the equivalent to the greek laurel. ↩︎

  5. 三十六宫 土花臂:A difficult line to fit in english metre, because “thirty-six palaces” takes up the entire first half of the original line. And then the second half is an odd phrase probably coined by Li He - “earth flower jade-green”. ↩︎

  6. I know my friend has explained this one already but I just need to yell again about how many images are packed into two characters, 衰兰 “withered orchids”. (a) 衰 pronounced shuai, “frail,” “old.” The flowers are withering because it’s autumn. (b) shuai, “reduced.” There are few flowers left, and the flowers represent the crowd seeing the procession off. Barely anyone cares about the statue in this new dynasty. © pronounced cui, “mourning garments.” Now this is a bit of a stretch, but I’m imagining the orchids as white with brown edges (the withering) - as in white and sackcloth mourning clothes. They’re symbols of mortality they’re the last few loyal mourners they’re moved by emotion and thus are able to age, unlike the unfeeling heavens in the next line. ↩︎

  7. Originally 渭城 “Wei City”, i.e. city on the Wei river, i.e. Chang’an. Both the Wei and Jing are famous rivers - Chang’an sits near where they touch. There’s a nice parallelism b/t the sound of the waves growing small (or faint) and the heavens not growing old in this stanza that not many existing translations point out. ↩︎