| The following excerpt is from Ch'u Yuan's "Tien
Wen" ("Heavenly Questions"). It appears
in a larger compilation of poems known as the Ch'u
Tz'u (Songs of the South), c. 100 BCE. |
"Toward
Evening"
Toward
evening there was thunder and
Lightning.
Why was the lady sad?
The
high lord did not reveal his majesty
What
was he seeking?
Like many Chinese poems, the surface is simplicity
itself, but the depths speak of words left unsaid.The contrast
of feminity (yin) and masculinity (yang) are implied
in the gender of the two mentioned characters, but the roles have
been reversed. The yang aspects of the "high lord"
that one would expect to find--passion and energy--do not reveal
themselves. ("Majesty" is in more vulgar poems given
as a euphemism for the penis.) The speaker wonders why the wife
is left ignored and depressed. Significantly, although there are
atmospheric signs of disturbance in the storm imagery, there is
no life-giving rain. Rainfall would be the normal and healthy
outcome of yin elements (coolness and moisture) coming
together with yang elements (heat and energy). The poem
encapsulates in a few lines a dysfunctional marriage among the
nobility and links it to the weather.
