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| Mekong Sonnet 1: Lunang Prabang |
| Everyone waits for the sunset But for me it's the Mekong moon --- There's sun-splashed gold on water, yet The night falls suddenly, and soon Scatters silver ingots --- fish-scale Shimmers --- bright against the slow black Flow. The full moon, yellow and pale Slides up over the mountain's back And spreads cold light against the palm's Still silhouette. Down on the black Bank the black river-boat's becalmed; Its wet rope glistens: taut, then slack. Beneath black waters roll this river's dead: No sun nor moon will light their restless bed. Martin Alexander |
| "POETRY & WINE" Hosted by Martin Alexander on Saturday, May 23rd 2009 |
| We look forwarding to seeing you in the next "Poetry & Wine" evening. Please Click here to make booking. |
became an unpopular character in Chinese culture. (Some say Qu Yuan poetries implied that he was
a gay who committed suicide because he was no longer favoured by his lover, the emperor, but this is
a subject for historian to study.)
Background Fact of the Painting "The Mountain Ghost" by Xu Beihong, oil on canvas
If you like to read my interpretation of "The Mountain Ghost" and why I composed "Do You Know?",
following is the story of the artist Xu Beihong and Jiang Biwei ~ his mountain ghost.
In the evening news on 01 March, a reporter announced that one of Xu Beihong's painting "Put Down
Your Whip" will be in Sotheby's auctions on 07 April 2007 and price will be scored for many thousand
millions in Hongkong currency. Another painting "The Mountain Ghost" by the same artist flashed in
my mind immediately and I wonder if it is available for auctions, what rocket price will it be? That
unavailable painting inspired me to write the poetry titled "Do You Know?".
Who was the artist's model in his painting of this evil character in Chinese culture? Well, if one has
seen Jiang Biwei's photos or oil paintings of her by Xu Beihong in her prime years, one recognises the
face of this mountain ghost in the painting is similar to Jiang Biwei, his 2nd ex-partner in an innocent
teenage expression. The painting was exhibited in 1943; 5 years after the end of their 21 years of
relationship, but the continue disputes in entitlement of assets and valuable items between the couple
were not ended yet.
Jiang Biwei was furious when this painting was exhibited because in her opinion Xu Beihong used his
brushes to paint her as a be-hated, low, greedy, lustfulness, and evilness mountain ghost, poison was
under cover of her sugary beautiful face and good body. Riding on her new lover represented by the
black tiger to advance into the land of wild and sensual represented by the animal and the forest.
Jiang Biwei of course did not interpret the painting as to telling the story of her courage and bravery in
running away from her elite family to Japan with the artist, a peasant's son in 1917 when she was 18.
She was already engaged and scheduled to marry in a few months. (When I was a child, I witnessed
2 arranged marriages in 1970sHong Kong! Both couples are happily married still.) He was already
married and had a son. Although her engagement and his first marriage were formally arranged by
their families, but during the last era of Ching dynasty and the fall of it, western value and cultural
influenced a handful of young and well educated intellectuals strongly in China. They sought freedom
in choosing their spouses instead of accepting arranged marriages. It was a big scandal in 1917's
Shanghai because her father was a professor in Futan University. In order not to lose face, her family
announced that she was dead and arranged a mock-funeral. After a long time, her parents accepted
their union, that "The rice is cooked, the tress is being made into a canoe." They supported the poor
artist and their daughter emotionally and financially when the couple was in Paris to study and during
their unsettled hard years. But it was still a big scandal in the high and low societies in China at the
time. They never got married formally because traditional value and custom were still strongly upheld
by the majority of people in China and her family.
In 1930 when the artist was 35 and she was 32, after 13 years of hardship with a son and a daughter
out of this relationship, he was famous as an artist in China; their life was heading to a promising and
rosy direction finally. He had another scandal upsetting another family and the society; it was his first
affair with one of his teenage students. Xu Beihong placed announcements in newspaper to
announce that his relationship with Jiang Biwei was ended because he had never married. And then,
after about 6 or 8 years when his student lover left him to marry someone else and during the tough
time of the 2nd world war, the separation drawn his fund dry. He returned and asked Jiang Biwei to
consider reconciliation. The artist had many other affairs openly with students, models, house
maids..., thus Jiang Biwei refused because she loved him no more and moved on after he dumped
her. He was upset, angry and disappointed by her refusal and believed that the true reason of her
not accepting him back was that she was dating the foreign minister whose wife was a French
woman. He was disparate to get income, thus he painted the "Mountain Ghost." placed a high price
tag on it to sell at an exhibition in Shanghai. It was again a scandal: A back-handed black mailing
Jiang Biwei publicly. Her foreign minister boy friend spent a fortune to buy that painting. But I don't
the painting was destroyed because it's the book cover of her autobiography on my bookshelves.
My interpretation:
To the outsiders, their love stories are ordinary timeless love stories in all culture but to the person
who experiences it, it's full of happiness, pain, guilt, love, hatred and all kinds of emotion.
In the beginning of his first affair with his teenage student, the artist once said to Jiang Biwei,
"I truly love you when I am with you, and I truly love her when I am with her." Hear, hear, doesn't this
sound familiar?
However, he expressed his true feelings in his heart. I know many male and female mountain ghosts,
when they are deeply and madly in love, regardless of their age, their lovers' situations, personalities,
etc. & etc. everyone of them ventures into the jungle bravely and willingly with her or his mountain
ghost.
If readers like to know more about the painting "Put Down Your Whip", please visit http://www.sothebys.
com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159340316 (Well, "Put Down Your Whip" is sold at HK$72 million
today ~ April 7th, 2007.)
a gay who committed suicide because he was no longer favoured by his lover, the emperor, but this is
a subject for historian to study.)
Background Fact of the Painting "The Mountain Ghost" by Xu Beihong, oil on canvas
If you like to read my interpretation of "The Mountain Ghost" and why I composed "Do You Know?",
following is the story of the artist Xu Beihong and Jiang Biwei ~ his mountain ghost.
In the evening news on 01 March, a reporter announced that one of Xu Beihong's painting "Put Down
Your Whip" will be in Sotheby's auctions on 07 April 2007 and price will be scored for many thousand
millions in Hongkong currency. Another painting "The Mountain Ghost" by the same artist flashed in
my mind immediately and I wonder if it is available for auctions, what rocket price will it be? That
unavailable painting inspired me to write the poetry titled "Do You Know?".
Who was the artist's model in his painting of this evil character in Chinese culture? Well, if one has
seen Jiang Biwei's photos or oil paintings of her by Xu Beihong in her prime years, one recognises the
face of this mountain ghost in the painting is similar to Jiang Biwei, his 2nd ex-partner in an innocent
teenage expression. The painting was exhibited in 1943; 5 years after the end of their 21 years of
relationship, but the continue disputes in entitlement of assets and valuable items between the couple
were not ended yet.
Jiang Biwei was furious when this painting was exhibited because in her opinion Xu Beihong used his
brushes to paint her as a be-hated, low, greedy, lustfulness, and evilness mountain ghost, poison was
under cover of her sugary beautiful face and good body. Riding on her new lover represented by the
black tiger to advance into the land of wild and sensual represented by the animal and the forest.
Jiang Biwei of course did not interpret the painting as to telling the story of her courage and bravery in
running away from her elite family to Japan with the artist, a peasant's son in 1917 when she was 18.
She was already engaged and scheduled to marry in a few months. (When I was a child, I witnessed
2 arranged marriages in 1970sHong Kong! Both couples are happily married still.) He was already
married and had a son. Although her engagement and his first marriage were formally arranged by
their families, but during the last era of Ching dynasty and the fall of it, western value and cultural
influenced a handful of young and well educated intellectuals strongly in China. They sought freedom
in choosing their spouses instead of accepting arranged marriages. It was a big scandal in 1917's
Shanghai because her father was a professor in Futan University. In order not to lose face, her family
announced that she was dead and arranged a mock-funeral. After a long time, her parents accepted
their union, that "The rice is cooked, the tress is being made into a canoe." They supported the poor
artist and their daughter emotionally and financially when the couple was in Paris to study and during
their unsettled hard years. But it was still a big scandal in the high and low societies in China at the
time. They never got married formally because traditional value and custom were still strongly upheld
by the majority of people in China and her family.
In 1930 when the artist was 35 and she was 32, after 13 years of hardship with a son and a daughter
out of this relationship, he was famous as an artist in China; their life was heading to a promising and
rosy direction finally. He had another scandal upsetting another family and the society; it was his first
affair with one of his teenage students. Xu Beihong placed announcements in newspaper to
announce that his relationship with Jiang Biwei was ended because he had never married. And then,
after about 6 or 8 years when his student lover left him to marry someone else and during the tough
time of the 2nd world war, the separation drawn his fund dry. He returned and asked Jiang Biwei to
consider reconciliation. The artist had many other affairs openly with students, models, house
maids..., thus Jiang Biwei refused because she loved him no more and moved on after he dumped
her. He was upset, angry and disappointed by her refusal and believed that the true reason of her
not accepting him back was that she was dating the foreign minister whose wife was a French
woman. He was disparate to get income, thus he painted the "Mountain Ghost." placed a high price
tag on it to sell at an exhibition in Shanghai. It was again a scandal: A back-handed black mailing
Jiang Biwei publicly. Her foreign minister boy friend spent a fortune to buy that painting. But I don't
the painting was destroyed because it's the book cover of her autobiography on my bookshelves.
My interpretation:
- The artist had mixed motivations, he used his brushes to depict his 2nd ex-partner in her
teenage prime to express his sweet memory of their relationship, his feeling of being dominated
by her. - His mixed feelings of his hatred and love of this woman because she didn't accepted him as he
was and forgave the varied mistakes that he made. - The beautiful nude wearing a natural crown made of herbs, shyly hiding her naked body with
one hand represents the artist's admiration of all his young lovers' beauty, innocent, braveness
and courage in running away from their families to be with him. - The lady looking backward while riding on a black tiger on the way to the depth of a forest full of
colourful flowers, greens and waterfall represents all the artist's young lovers riding on him, the
lustful mountain ghost as their protector, ventured into the dangerous jungles illustrated
beautifully by him, into their unknown journeys; looked backward at their family members and
the traditional values they have abandoned.
To the outsiders, their love stories are ordinary timeless love stories in all culture but to the person
who experiences it, it's full of happiness, pain, guilt, love, hatred and all kinds of emotion.
In the beginning of his first affair with his teenage student, the artist once said to Jiang Biwei,
"I truly love you when I am with you, and I truly love her when I am with her." Hear, hear, doesn't this
sound familiar?
However, he expressed his true feelings in his heart. I know many male and female mountain ghosts,
when they are deeply and madly in love, regardless of their age, their lovers' situations, personalities,
etc. & etc. everyone of them ventures into the jungle bravely and willingly with her or his mountain
ghost.
If readers like to know more about the painting "Put Down Your Whip", please visit http://www.sothebys.
com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159340316 (Well, "Put Down Your Whip" is sold at HK$72 million
today ~ April 7th, 2007.)
| I composed the "Do You Know?" (Mountain Ghost) in 2007, but felt uncomfortable in 2 words that I used. Great thanks to Alex in giving me advise to revise it. "Poetry & Wine" is fun and it is my English improvement class as well! |
Qu Yuan (340 BC - 278
BC) was a Chinese
patriotic poet from
southern Chu during the
Warring States, he
committed suicide by
throwing himself into a
river because his
suggestions in saving the
state in danger was not
accepted by the
emperor. We
commemorate of his
death on Dragon Boat
Festival. He described
mountain ghost in one of
his poetries titled "Nine
Songs" as a negative
sprit. The mountain spirit
BC) was a Chinese
patriotic poet from
southern Chu during the
Warring States, he
committed suicide by
throwing himself into a
river because his
suggestions in saving the
state in danger was not
accepted by the
emperor. We
commemorate of his
death on Dragon Boat
Festival. He described
mountain ghost in one of
his poetries titled "Nine
Songs" as a negative
sprit. The mountain spirit
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DO YOU KNOW? by jsl Do you know where you’re going? Do you know that being you’re going with? Do you know why you must go? Some warn him off their child. Some say he hunts in every thicket. Some call him cagey. Do you know you’ll be lost? Do you know you’ll cold? Do you know you’ll be lonely? So you know where you’re going? Who’s that going with you? Why you must go? I love him so. |
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