Miscellaneous Notes of Li Shangyin

Derangements of My Contemporaries: Miscellaneous Notes (New Directions, 2014, Poetry Pamphlet #14) by Li Shangyin, translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts

Li Shangyin (813-859) was a poet and a minor government official. He had trouble passing the examinations to become a minister, and his career was marked by short-term posts and varied employment. In the Translator’s Note we are told that his was a “lifetime of frustrations and thwarted ambitions,” and so perhaps it’s not surprising that after his wife died he dedicated himself to the practice of Buddhism. Lin Shangyin lived only into his mid-forties.

Li Shangyin’s Za Zuan (Miscellaneous Notes) are not typical of his poetry, which by the time of the Song dynasty was highly regarded and anthologized, according to the translator, Chloe Garcia Roberts. She refers to the Notes as “lyrical lists” that when taken together become a vivid, if fragmentary, account of the poet’s life and times.

Flipping through the book the pieces appear to be poems, with the typical layout of a title followed by a number of lines. But they’re not poems per se. The pieces of this book all have a title which serves as a ‘category’ for the list of aphoristic statements and observations that follows. The statements and observations could be described as ‘examples’ of the category (title) of the piece. The formal structure of the pieces in this book intrigues me, while many of the individual aphoristic lines fall flat. Some of the statements are too mundane or commonplace to be worthy of comment. Notice the first and last lines of this piece:

     Displeasure

     Cutting something with a dull knife
     Plying the wind with a ragged sail
     Trees darkening the view
     Building a wall that hides the mountains
     Flowering season: no music
     A high-summer banquet held away from the breeze
     Mincemeat: no vinegar
     Summer months wearing thick clothing

The pieces do convey the mores and manners of Li Shangyin’s times. By reading these pieces one is made aware of the meals and rituals, the dos-n-don’ts of marriages, rules for running households and business affairs, familial order, the clear divisions of class and rank, and thus one is given a lens into the workings of Chinese society. Remembering that Li Shangyin lived in the ninth century, and thus it can be hard to hear remarks about dealings with slave girls, concubines, and servants: “To say a prostitute feels love,” under the title, “Misleading Statements.”

Here's a selection of some of the better lines with the titles they fall under:

“Contradictions”

     A butcher reciting Buddhist scripture

“Inevitable”

     Being treated like a transient visitor in a poor temple

“Bitterly Poor: Scenes”

     Folk music played on a single-stick drum

“Instances of Waste”

     A eunuch with a beautiful wife

      […]

     A magnificent dining hall not used for banquets

“Cannot Abide”

     Rain dripping into a boat

“Oblivious”

     To be a visitor and call yourself a guest

“Certain Poverty”

     To be excessively clever at many things

“Wise and Able”

     When drunk, speaks little

“Unlucky”

     Singing songs and melodies while lying in bed

Some of the lines strike me as funny, though I’m certain they weren’t meant to be taken that way:

“Judgment Lapses”

      Going out to welcome guests in your undergarments

      [...]

     At a banquet, being careless with your snot and saliva

      [...]

     Being the first to lay down chopsticks, while everyone is still eating

One imagines an endless banquet where all the guests are down to a few bits of rice, and all are looking out of the corners of their eyes around the table, trying to see who will be first to put down their chopsticks.