Yuan Zhen finds a leftover from history

And the people who lived through it

This old palace is actually Wangduechhoeling in Bhutan, but I feel like it’s at just the right level of abandonment. Credit: Hriday, Flickr

The Summer Residence
Yuan Zhen

A royal summer residence
In loneliness decays,
In royal gardens flowers bloom
A lonely crimson blaze,
The palace maids can still be found
Though once-black hair now greys,
They idly talk of King Xuanzong
And empire's final days.

元稹  行宫
寥落古行宫，宫花寂寞红。
白头宫女在，闲坐说玄宗。

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Xuanzong ruled over the Tang Dynasty's most glorious moment – and its downfall, when An Lushan rebelled and crippled the empire. The Tang throne was restored after a few years, but it was never as powerful again.

Yuan Zhen (779-831) wrote this poem in 809, more than 50 years after the rebellion. The palace maids, perhaps then in their teens, lived into their sixties and seventies, and still remembered those glory days.