The flower that blooms in adversity
is the most rare and beautiful of all
— Mulan
EARTHBOUND
a miniature rose
beauty in beholder’s eyes —
golden lotus springs
3/5/2021
From wikipedia: There are a number of stories about the origin of foot binding before its establishment during the Song dynasty. One of these involves the story of Pan Yunu, a favourite consort of the Southern Qi Emperor Xiao Baojuan. In the story, Pan Yunu, renowned for having delicate feet, performed a dance barefoot on a floor decorated with the design of a golden lotus, after which the Emperor, expressing admiration, said that "lotus springs from her every step!" (????), a reference to the Buddhist legend of Padmavati, under whose feet lotus springs forth. This story may have given rise to the terms "golden lotus" or "lotus feet" used to describe bound feet; there is, however, no evidence that Consort Pan ever bound her feet.[3]
Mao I
(After an ink drawing by Mao I, Song dynasty, c. 1100
in the Freer Gallery of Oriental Art)
Faded, brown, discrete, as flowers pressed
in some antique book or magazine suggest
an intimate mood--fleeting, flown,
perennial, between timeless print grown
meaningless, his femur sausage-linked
bamboo or supple joint-less trout, lightly inked,
survived the arson and the coup d'etats.
We find no window-sized Madonna
or noble in fluffed moustache
winking across the room at a burgher
winking back.
Here on a silk pane, light-boned swallows
toss in the wind-sifted willows,
While at wind-arrested edge of flight one flies
caught forever turning in his almond eyes.
Plum trees by the corner,
Sole bloom of winter;
With faint fragrance
Adorning the frost.
Poem by Wang An Shi (1021-1086 )
-Chancellor of Song dynasty 1070-74/1075-76
Translation: Brian Chung
purelandsutras.wordpress.com/blog
Author: Runping Chen
Here is the noisy lodging house
Where I cannot compose a poem in reply to Dongpo’s Prelude to Water Melody
Because whoever can hardly
Bear the accumulated homesickness.
I sang loudly
In a melancholy.
In an avulsion, my voice
Sang to the top of my bent.
The tacit moon,
crude and rash like that,
Wouldn’t realize
Her radiance gave a burn to the man away home.
Would you like some moon cake, my friends?
No! I’d rather go outside
And have a bite of the moon.
Therein I might relish that taste.
I wanted to throw my mind up into the starry sky
And swim in the limpid moonlight.
The cool breeze raised the brows of the clouds.
My heart was even brighter than the Mid-autumn moon’s eye
While however I opened my heart I couldn’t see my hometown
A both ancient and young sadness of parting,
Always classical
And refreshing now and forever.
Note:
Prelude to Water Melody is the Ci poem written by the famous poet Su Dongpo in the Mid-Autumn Festival of 1076 (the Song Dynasty). It takes moon, full and crescent, as the symbol to describe the reunions and separations, joys and sorrows of people’s life.
The Ten Million Dollar Chinese Bowl
By Elton Camp
Asian art collectors were extraordinary excited
A rare Chinese imperial ceramic bowl ignited
Asia's fine art market has exploded last decade
It was expected for the bowl millions to be paid
From the Northern Song Dynasty it's pale green
And is the only one of its type that's ever seen
Museums & individuals are thrilled over the piece
So astronomically the price is likely to increase
Buyer will be one who about money doesn't care
Perhaps a mainland Chinese or western billionaire
The auctioneer held the bowl up and asked for cash
Out of his hand it plunged with a sickening crash
Tiny fragments were scattered all over the floor
And it was worth ten million bucks no more