A gathering of great writers

Gao Shi, Du Fu, Cen Shen, Chu Guangxi

Climbing the Tower at the Temple of Blessings with Friends
Gao Shi

The fragrant realm of incense teems
With shrines and temples; yet none seems
     A match for the tower here.
As breezes fan our high redoubt,
A vision of Great Power spreads out
     Like trigrams for a seer.
We joke we’ve joined the feathered race,
And reached the elevated space
     Of empty atmosphere.
Or I perhaps am now a king
Of every seen and unseen thing:
     I’ve left the mortal sphere.
Palaces hunker at the base
And in the span these gables trace
     Mountains and rivers appear.
Last night the wind blew autumn in;
From east to west, the plain of Qin
     Seems measureless and clear.
A hundred miles away are seen
The royal tombs at Wuling, green
     Still lustrous yet austere.
This golden age owes gratitude
To Ruan’s brave men; I too have stood
     With a border sentry’s spear.
In this good cause our thanks are sent:
Today we climb this monument
     In perfect carefree cheer!

高适  同诸公登慈恩寺浮图
香界泯群有，浮图岂诸相。
登临骇孤高，披拂欣大壮。
言是羽翼生，迥出虚空上。
顿疑身世别，乃觉形神王。
宫阙皆户前，山河尽檐向。
秋风昨夜至，秦塞多清旷。
千里何苍苍，五陵郁相望。
盛时惭阮步，末宦知周防。
输效独无因，斯焉可游放。

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In 752, at the height of the long reign of Emperor Xuanzong, five writers gathered to climb the tallest building in Chang’an. Three of them are still well-known today, much anthologised and read in schools. Chu Guangxi was not such an accomplished poet, but very much part of the Chang’an scene. Xue Ju was extremely well-regarded by his peers, but his work has been lost.

This gathering was emblematic of the Tang: poets forming their own connections, writing poetry for each other, not just for the emperor. There’s a competitive element, and a contrast of styles, with the younger Du Fu and Cen Shen trying more imaginative metaphors. Oddly, despite how well-known this event is, I can’t find a full English translation of the four surviving poems anywhere. So this is my attempt!

Gao Shi was probably the first to write, because he was the oldest. His poem is the shortest: it looks to me as though the other three (four if we include the lost Xue Ju poem) felt compelled to equal and surpass him. These poems are all technical exercises: they each pick a single rhyme and maintain it over a dozen or more lines.

Notes:

The Temple of Blessings was a major Buddhist temple in Chang’an. The tower that the poets climbed was built during the early Tang, and is still there, today known as Giant Goose Pagoda.

Great Power is one of the hexagrams in the I Ching/Book of Changes.

The plain of Qin is the river plain on which Chang’an is built.

The tombs at Wuling are a complex of imperial tombs from the Han Dynasty.

Ruan’s brave men means soldiers. Ruan Ji was a poet and commander of infantry from about five centuries before.