If you wonder what is the commonest image in Chinese poetry, the first one that comes to your mind would be the moon or the moonlight. The moonlight in Chinese poetry is a special image with much allusiveness, which, as Harold Bloom, a great literature critic, has pointed out, is the art of reading poetry. Many instances can be easily found in Tang Dynasty poetry. The moonlight as it can shine upon hills and valleys, rivers and streams, home and strange land, etc.has been exploited by so many poets to stand for lovesickness. We can’t stay together to make love but we can share the clear and pure moonlight as if the rays conveyed the love between us over the distance. So, Chinese poetry is filled with the moonlight as in ancient times this was a common picture that the husband was far away from the home to make contribution to the country, or rather, the empire while the wife was at home doing filial piety to the parents and bringing up the children. If the husband was not successful in official career and even was forced into exile, he often began to fall in homesickness and lovesickness and wrote a poet to confide to the world his inner feelings.
Here is an example:
望月怀远
张九龄
海上生明月，天涯共此时。
情人怨遥夜，竟夕起相思。
灭烛怜光满，披衣觉露滋。
不堪盈手赠，还寝梦佳期。
Missingfamily afar when gazing at the moon
Zhang Jiuling
Abovethe sea is the rising moon, so lovely and bright,
Farat the horizon are you gazing at the moon with me?
Theloving and the loved both complain about the long night,
Tossingand turning on bed in deep yearning.
Themoonlight is lying on the ground with candle put out,
Thedews are so cold to bite me when to wander for leisure.
Sobeautiful is the moonlight but I can’t pick it up to be sent,
Iwould return to bed for a sweet dream in which to date.
(Tr. by Peter Wang)
The moonlight appears first in the poem to create an air of vigor and vastness as the moonlight shines over the sea. The sea is vast and boundless, thus creating a tone of immense world in which are the poet and his loved ones who are sharing the same moon as if they were conversing with each other to confide lovesickness. Set in a grand background, the moon and the sea create a tone of immenseness. The world in which are the poet and his loved ones missing each other and confiding to each other the lovesickness is so big and wide that it seems impossible to .get in touch with each other but fortunately the moonlight can act as the go-between and convey the feelings mutually. So we can say the moon plays the role of media. When the moon rises above the sea, which symbolizes the surge of ups and downs in the secular world, especially the officialdom, the poet in exile fall ill in lovesickness. People who are devoted to the world always forget the affection between family members. If you want to be a successful official, you need to be affectionless. The reason for that, it is said, is that mood will be a dangerous factor in his official decisions. Some political figures boast of being poker-faced for three hours during a conference so that people around him can’t be certain about his honest thoughts and feelings, giving an impression of being enigmatic. It is said that such sense of being enigmatic can help him win adoration, I’m not sure, though. But once he is frustrated in officialdom, he immediately begins to be homesick and the moon,clear and bright, lovely and pure, makes him lovesick. Sharing the moon of the same moment in imagination consoles his dreariness in lovesickness.
When in lovesickness, time seemingly slows down and a night is too long a torment for the poet and he begins to complaints against the endless night. The poet ingeniously set his poem in a grand background but then focuses on the night and his feelings. This way, the poet highlights his unique experience on such a dreary night which, in my opinion, symbolizes the abominable political environment. When in exile, one who has been given an important official post will comprehend and realize much about human nature. Such an experience will teach him a life lesson and he begins to return to the affection between him and his loved ones. The more perilous the political environment is, the deeper he is in lovesickness. It’s an enlightenment of human nature and in it lies the power of the poem: when the pure and bright moon rises above the sea, the poet is awakened and by comparing the purity and brightness of the moon with the chilly and cruel political environment symbolized by the sea, he comes to know which is more important: the rank in officialdom or the affection between the family.The roaring waves of the sea resembling the political environment reminds him of the peace and harmony among the family who love each other without pretensions. This explains why the poet in dreariness doesn’t set his “story” in a dreadful environment but describes the moon to be so lovely, beautiful and bright. Generally speaking, a writer will describe the environment according to his feelings, bright for bright and melancholy for melancholy. But the poet exploits a new way contrary to the usual one: bright for melancholy. Bright is the moon and melancholy the poet in lovesickness.
（ToBe Continued）
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