Ye Shaoweng

Ye Shaoweng (Chinese: 葉紹翁; Wade–Giles: Yeh Shao-weng; fl. 1200–1250) was a Southern Song dynasty Chinese poet from Longquan, in modern Lishui, Zhejiang province.[1] He belonged to the Jianghu (Rivers and Lakes) School of poets, known for its unadorned style of poetry.[1] He was an academician serving in the imperial archives in the capital Hangzhou,[1] and authored a history on the reigns of the first four emperors of the Southern Song entitled Sicao Jianwen Lu (四朝見聞錄), covering the period of 1127–1224. He was a friend of the Neo-Confucian scholar Zhen Dexiu.[2] Little else is known about his life.[1]

In this Chinese name, the family name is Ye.

Ye Shaoweng's most famous poem is Youyuan Buzhi (Visiting a Private Garden without Success):

遊園不值       Visiting a Private Garden without Success
應憐屐齒印蒼苔   It must be because he hates clogs on his moss
十扣柴扉久不開   I knock ten times still his gate stayed closed
春色滿園關不住   but spring can't be kept locked in a garden
一支紅杏出牆來   a branch of red blossoms reached past the wall[1]

The last couplet is often reused in later works, its meaning recast as a sexual innuendo.[3] The African-American author Richard Wright wrote two haikus which bear close resemblance to Ye's poem.[4]

References
  1. Red Pine 2012, p. 109.
  2. Davis 1990, p. 46.
  3. Lowry 2005, p. 280.
  4. Hakutani 2011, p. 31.

Sources
  • Davis, A.R. (1990). A Book of Chinese Verse. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-962-209-228-0.
  • Hakutani, Yoshinobu, ed. (2011). Cross-Cultural Visions in African American Literature: West Meets East. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-11912-3.
  • Lowry, Kathryn A. (2005). The Tapestry of Popular Songs in 16th- and 17th Century China: Reading, Imitation, And Desire. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-14586-9.
  • Red Pine (2012). Poems of the Masters: China's Classic Anthology of T'ang and Sung Dynasty Verse. Copper Canyon Press. ISBN 978-1-61932-088-8.
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