Before I can tell you that poem...

I have to tell you this classic by Tao Hongjing

Credit: Ken Marshall, Flickr

A Poem in Reply to a Royal Letter Enquiring What There Is in the Mountains
Tao Hongjing

Among the mountains, what wealth do I own?
Above the peaks, the clouds of white.
But clouds are personal delight;
They cannot be collected for the throne.

陶弘景  诏问山中何所有赋诗以答
山中何所有，岭上多白云。
只可自怡悦，不堪持赠君。

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I try to stick fairly strictly to Tang poetry, but I also want readers to be able to trace poetic connections for themselves. So every now and then, we have to dive back in history a little bit. Tao Hongjing (456–536) was one of those universal geniuses who appeared in the long interregnum between the Han and Tang dynasties. He engaged in war, politics, and all forms of intellectual pursuits.

But today we’re reading one of the poems in which he rejected all that. The state of Liang controlled southern China during the later part of Tao’s life. The Liang king, Emperor Wu, wanted Tao to come and work for him, but Tao didn’t fancy it, and said he was going to stay in the hills. Emperor Wu rather peevishly asked him what there was to see in the hills?

Tao’s reply is mild and measured, but the unspoken message is clear. It was an instant classic, and the white cloud became a symbol of the refusenik, those men of ability who retreat into private life and step back from the state when they do not believe the ruler is worthy of their service.

(Side note: Classical Chinese poetry is infinitely various, containing every mood under the sun. But if anyone ever asks you what Chinese poetry is like, I think this poem is a pretty good answer. It combines so many of the classic elements: natural beauty, politics and public life, diplomacy and unspoken messages… Sometimes, poets pursue a kind of purity: pure emotion, pure experience, or pure beauty. But I think the most characteristic feature of classical Chinese poems is their complexity. Complexity is not an add-on, it’s a basic feature. It’s where poetry starts.)