Yang Guifei (Yang Kuei-fey) concubine of the Tang emperor Xuanzong
(Hsüan-tsung; 685-762). Renowned beauty of Chinese history. Of humble origins,
she is said to have won the favor and passion of the emperor to the extent that
he eventually began to neglect state affairs. She adopted An Lu-shan, a general
of Turkic origin, as her son and helped him win power at court. A power struggle
over control of the central government between An Lu-shan and Yang’s brother led
to An’s rebellion in 755. Fleeing the capital before the rebels captured it,
angry royal guards, who blamed Yang Guifei and her brother for the rebellion,
forced Xuanzong to order their execution. The emperor soon abdicated.Yang
Guifei’s story and her tragic end have been a favorite theme for Chinese poets
and writers.
Bai Juyi (Pai Chu-i, Bo Juyi, Po Chü-i; 772-846) recounts
the tragic love story of Yang Guifei in his long poem "Song of
Everlasting Sorrow" (C: Chang hen ge; J: Chôgonka). He was one
of the most famous poets and men of letters of the mid-Tang period. Born in
modern Henan, he held several senior official posts during his life-time,
although his outspoken criticisms of government policies resulted in his being
exiled from Chang'an in 815. A prolific poet with an international reputation,
he strove for clarity in his writings and, with his good friend Yuan Zhen,
promoted the new yuefu style of poetry. He was a devout Buddhist and many of his
poems are very critical of the society of the time. His long poem "Song of
Everlasting Sorrow" was particularly popular among the aristocracy of mid-Heian
period Japan as well, which accounts for the numerous references to Bai Juyi and
his poems in The Tale of Genji and other works of classical Japanese
literature.
| Emperor Xuanzong meets Yang Guifei and is moved both by her
resemblance to his dead wife and by her sincerity. He installs Yang Guifei
as his favorite concubine. We then see An Lushan plotting his rise to
power after having lifted Yang Gueifei from her humble origins as a
kitchen maid to imperial concubine. Click here to show scene one |
Emperor Xuanzong argues with his chief minister concerning the
importance of just laws--in accordance with the mandate of heaven. Click here to show scene
two |
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow
China’s
Emperor yearning, for beauty that shakes a kingdom, Reigned for many years,
searching but not finding, Until a child of the Yang, hardly yet grown, Raised
in the inner chamber, unseen by anybody, But with heavenly graces that could not
be hidden, Was chosen one day for the Imperial household. If she turned her head
and smiled she cast a deep spell, Beauties of Six Palaces vanished into nothing.
Hair’s cloud, pale skin, shimmer of gold moving, Flowered curtains protected on
cool spring evenings. Those nights were too short. That sun too quick in
rising.
The emperor neglected the world from that moment, Lavished his time
on her in endless enjoyment. She was his springtime mistress, and his midnight
tyrant. Though there were three thousand ladies all of great beauty, All his
gifts were devoted to one person.
Li Palace rose high in the clouds.
The
winds carried soft magic notes,
Songs and graceful dances, string and pipe
music. He could never stop himself from gazing at her.
But the Earth reels.
War drums fill East Pass, Drown out ‘The Feathered Coat and Rainbow Skirt’.
Great Swallow Pagoda and Hall of Light, Are bathed in dust - the army fleeing
Southwards. Out there Imperial banners, wavering, pausing Until by the river
forty miles from West Gate, The army stopped. No one would go forward, Until
horses’ hooves trampled willow eyebrows. Flower on a hairpin. No one to save it.
Gold and jade phoenix. No one retrieved it. Covering his face the Emperor rode
on. Turned to look back at that place of tears, Hidden by a yellow dust whirled
by a cold wind.
As Shu waters flow green, Shu mountains show blue, His
majesty’s love remained, deeper than the new. White moon of loneliness, cold
moon of exile. Bell-chimes in evening rain were bronze-edged heartbeats. So when
the dragon-car turned again northwards The Emperor clung to Ma-Wei’s dust, never
desiring To leave that place of memories and heartbreak. Where is the white jade
in heaven and earth’s turning?
Lakes and gardens are still as they have been,
T’ai-yi’s hibiscus, Wei-yang’s willows. A flower-petal was her face, a
willow-leaf her eyebrow, How could it not be grief just to see them? Plum and
pear blossoms blown on spring winds Maple trees ruined in rains of autumn.
Palaces neglected, filled with weeds and grasses, Mounds of red leaves spilled
on unswept stairways.
Burning the midnight light he could not sleep, Bells
and drums tolled the dark hours, The Ocean of Heaven bright before dawn,
The
porcelain mandarin birds frosted white, The chill covers of kingfisher blue,
Colder and emptier, year by year.
And the loved spirit never returning.
A
Taoist priest of Ling-chun rode the paths of Heaven, He with his powerful mind
knew how to reach the Spirits. The Courtiers troubled by the Emperor’s grieving,
Asked the Taoist priest if he might find her. He opened the sky-routes, swept
the air like lightning, Looked everywhere, on earth and in heaven, Scoured the
Great Void, and the Yellow Fountains, But failed in either to find the one he
searched for. Then he heard tales of a magic island In the Eastern Seas,
enchanted, eternal, High towers and houses in air of five colours, Perfect
Immortals walking between them, Among them one they called The Ever Faithful,
With her face, of flowers and of snow.
She left her dreams, rose from her
pillow, Opened mica blind and crystal screen, Hastening, unfastened, clouded
hair hanging, Her light cap unpinned, ran along the pavement. A breeze in her
gauze, flowing with her movement, As if she danced ‘Feathered Coat and Rainbow
Skirt’. So delicate her jade face, drowned with tears of sadness, Like a spray
of pear flowers, veiled with springtime rain.
She asked him to thank her
Love, her eyes gleaming, He whose form and voice she lost at parting. Her joy
had ended in Courts of the Bright Sun, Moons and dawns were long in Faerie
Palace. When she turned her face to look back earthwards And see Ch’ang-an -
only mist and dust-clouds. So she found the messenger her lover’s gifts With
deep feeling gave him lacquer box, gold hairpin, Keeping one half of the box,
one part of the hairpin, Breaking the lacquer, splitting the gold.
‘Our
spirits belong together, like these precious fragments, Sometime, in earth or
heaven, we shall meet again.’ And she sent these words, by the Taoist, to remind
him of their midnight vow, secret between them. ‘On that Seventh night, of the
Herdboy and the Weaver, In the silent Palace we declared our dream was To fly
together in the sky, two birds on the same wing, To grow together on the earth,
two branches of one tree.’
Earth fades, Heaven fades, at the end of days. But
Everlasting Sorrow endures always.