Wang Wei on the glitterati

He doesn't like them (can't quite stop looking at them)

Song of a Luoyang Girl
Wang Wei

A Luoyang girl lives opposite my place,
Fourteen or so, her youthful beauty in her face,
And golden plates of fine-sliced carp served by her maid;
Her husband’s fancy horses have their bridles hung with jade.

I see their muralled rooms, the lacquered red of women’s halls,
Pink peach trees and green willows close against their walls,
Her curtained coach arriving, with seven-spice perfume,
The fans and lacy canopy that cool her in her room. 

The master’s rich and young and wild in personality;
He revels, like Jilun, in ostentatious luxury,
Great trees of coral given away without a second thought,
The dances that his darling knows, he personally taught.

In spring the lamps are doused at dawn; their windows blazed all night,
Now fumes from banks of candelabra blossom in the light.
The parties leave no time to practice music she might play, 
She dresses up to sit in splendour; seated she will stay.

Throughout Luoyang, their friends are the finest families,
Each day and night they whirl between the Zhao clan and the Lis—
This girl from Yue’s face may have a luminous jade sheen, 
But who would look at farm girls washing laundry in the stream?

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Wang Wei sets this poem in Luoyang, which is a real city, but really just means Cityville. He might have been talking about people he knew in the capital, Chang’an, but renamed the town to be a little more discreet.

The perspective that Wang adopts here is curious and somewhat prurient one: while the general tone of his poem is disapproving, he literally tells us that he’s looking into the bedroom of this lush 14 year old young woman. This is a pretty classic case of moralistic leering.

Jilun was an ancient exemplar of ostentatious wealth. The story goes that when a rich friend tried to show off to Jilun by producing a tree-sized piece of coral, which was fabulous treasure, Jilun simply picked up a bat and smashed it to bits. He then walked the outraged owner into his (Jilun’s) own storeroom, where they found forests of tree-sized corals, and invited him to choose his own replacement for the smashed one.

Zhaos and Lis were generic names for wealthy families.

The reference at the end is to Xi Shi, who was a poor washer girl when she was discovered by agents of the king. She was taken to the palace, became one of the most beautiful women in history, and was ultimately instrumental in destroying a state.

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王维  洛阳女儿行

洛阳女儿对门居，才可颜容十五余。

良人玉勒乘骢马，侍女金盘脍鲤鱼。

画阁朱楼尽相望，红桃绿柳垂檐向。

罗帷送上七香车，宝扇迎归九华帐。

狂夫富贵在青春，意气骄奢剧季伦。

自怜碧玉亲教舞，不惜珊瑚持与人。

春窗曙灭九微火，九微片片飞花琐。

戏罢曾无理曲时，妆成祗是熏香坐。

城中相识尽繁华，日夜经过赵李家。

谁怜越女颜如玉，贫贱江头自浣纱。