• Memorial of Filial Entreaty

    by Li Mi (Western Jin Dynasty) Your servant Li Mi speaks: I have suffered misfortune since birth and was early visited by sorrow. My father died when I was just six months old; at age four, my uncle forced my mother to remarry against her will. My grandmother Lady Liu, pitying my orphaned and…

  • The War Chariots

    by Du Fu (Tang Dynasty) Carts rumble, horses neigh –Soldiers march with bows and arrows at their waists.Fathers, mothers, wives, and children run to see them off;Dust swirls so thick the Xianyang Bridge disappears from sight.They clutch garments, stamp feet, block the road, and wail –Their cries pierce straight through to the clouds.

  • Seeing Wei Wan off to the Capital [Tang Poems]

    — Li Qi At dawn I hear the roamer’s farewell song; Last night a thin frost crossed the river long. Are you not grieved to hear the wild geese cry? Can you bear clouds and mountains passing by? Yellow leaves hasten the cold to come near. Could washerwomen’s song reach their men’s ear? Don’t…

  • The Spark That Lit the Empire Ablaze [Western Han]

    Only after Fusu and Meng Tian were murdered in the palace coup did the court publicly announce Qin Shi Huang’s death. Huhai ascended as the Second Emperor (Qin Er Shi), with Zhao Gao wielding de facto power. 

  • The Hard Road to Shu

    by Li Bai (Tang Dynasty) Ah! Alas! How perilous, how towering!The road to Shu is harder than scaling the blue sky! 

  • Invitation to Wine

     – by Li Bai (Tang Dynasty) Don’t you see?The Yellow River’s waters come from the sky,Rushing to the sea – never to return.