Yuan Zhen also hates the dirty-dancing foreigners
If everyone says it, it must be true!
Mongolian Whirling Girl
Yuan Zhen
.
As the Tianbao years drew on, the barbarians spoiled for a fight;
They gifted us women who danced the Mongolian Whirl.
The emperor's head was turned by the hypnotic sight,
The Turk took Longevity Hall when he danced like a girl.
So nobody saw the intent of the Whirl, or its cost,
All I can convey is what it was like to see:
A spiralling whirlwind, pondweed cut loose by the frost,
Like circus plates spinning, like Catherine wheels picking up speed.
The jewels in their earrings romp like shooting stars,
While lightning bolts flash in the silks of their colourful clothes,
They spin like the whirlpools whales suck down as they gasp,
Chaotic gyrations that float in the air when it snows.
In thousands of turns, who can tell where one ends and one starts?
The audience glimpses a front or a back, but who knows?
Observers were muttering, men of ability cried,
The conduct of ruler and ruled were distorted and skewed:
"As right and wrong twist at a glance from the emperor's eye,
As he carelessly wills that north, south, east, west should be moved,
He's dressed in soft robes which his women accessorize!
The pendants now wrapped round her finger are swaying his mood."
The lackeys at court heard the public complaints and made plans:
They flattered the emperor's ego and addled his mind.
He gave plain decrees: his words became swords in their hands;
His bon mots were twisted and baited like hooks on a line.
In every corner and crack, like shadows they spread,
Their twittering endless as finches in fertile spring,
Abusing authority, turning the state on its head,
And silencing any who'd carry reports to the king.
At the end, when the royal carriage fled south "on a tour,"
The emperor finally saw the world's axes had turned.
This is how Whirlers blinded and fooled us all,
For king and for commoner, the lesson must be learned!
Yuan Zhen (779-831) was Bai Juyi’s political partner. Together they published a political manifesto in poetry, of which these xenophobic offerings are just one small part. Like the matching poem by Bai Juyi, this poem by Yuan Zhen blames a decline in the Tang Empire on foreign influence. In fact, Yuan goes further, and claims that sending dancers to the Tang was an act of deliberate cultural sabotage. The emperor himself was hypnotized; but the primary blame for the empire’s downfall rests with the plotting lackeys around him, who hid the truth from the king.
The Mongolian Whirl (also translated as the “Sogdian Whirl”) was a style of dance that involved spinning around in fast circles. It could be danced by either men or women, but was often performed by women for a male audience. Mongolia did not exist during the Tang, so the Chinese name of this dance is the hu whirl, where hu means “northern barbarians.” This style of dancing probably originated in Central Asia (Sogdia covered parts of Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan), which was the source of many artistic and cultural influences during the Tang Dynasty. You can see a modern interpretation here.
The Turk means An Lushan. He was of Sogdian (Central Asian) origin, but the poem refers to him as hu, the general term for “barbarians” from the north and northwest.
Xuanzong was the emperor who ruled at the height of Tang power, in the middle of the 8th century (reigned 713-756), and who allowed it to all come crashing down, when one of his favourites revolted and briefly took control of the capital, Chang’an.
Yang Yuhuan (often known by her title, Yang Guifei) was the concubine with whom Xuanzong spent most of his time in the later part of his reign. She was connected to a powerful clan, and was blamed for corruption in the palace.
元稹 胡旋女
天宝欲末胡欲乱，胡人献女能胡旋。
旋得明王不觉迷，妖胡奄到长生殿。
胡旋之义世莫知，胡旋之容我能传。
蓬断霜根羊角疾，竿戴朱盘火轮炫。
骊珠迸珥逐飞星，虹晕轻巾掣流电。
潜鲸暗吸笡波海，回风乱舞当空霰。
万过其谁辨终始，四座安能分背面。
才人观者相为言，承奉君恩在圆变。
是非好恶随君口，南北东西逐君眄，
柔软依身著佩带，裴回绕指同环钏。
佞臣闻此心计回，荧惑君心君眼眩。
君言似曲屈为钩，君言好直舒为箭。
巧随清影触处行，妙学春莺百般啭。
倾天侧地用君力，抑塞周遮恐君见。
翠华南幸万里桥，玄宗始悟坤维转。
寄言旋目与旋心，有国有家当共谴。