— Huang Chao
When autumn comes, the Mountain-climbing Day is nigh;
My flower blows when other blooms come to an end.
In battle array its fragrance rises sky-high,
The capital with its golden armor will blend.
Note
Huang Chao (c. 820–884) was a failed scholar, salt smuggler, and ultimately the rebel leader who led a massive uprising that severely weakened the Tang Dynasty. Though remembered more as a revolutionary than a poet, his few surviving poems are striking for their boldness, martial energy, and symbolic power.
His famous poem “Chrysanthemum After Failing the Imperial Exams” (Bu Di Hou Fu Ju or The Chrysanthemum) was written after he repeatedly failed the civil service examinations – a system meant to reward merit but often closed to outsiders like him. Rather than express despair, Huang Chao channels his frustration into a defiant, almost prophetic vision.
He personifies the chrysanthemum – not as a symbol of quiet retirement (as in traditional poetry), but as a warrior-flower that dominates autumn, causing “all other blossoms to perish.” When it blooms on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month (Double Ninth Festival), its fragrance doesn’t just scent the air – it forms a “battle array” that soars into the sky and fills Chang’an, the imperial capital. The final line delivers a stunning image: “The whole city is clad in golden armor” – a double meaning where golden chrysanthemum petals become the armor of an invading army.
This poem is both a personal declaration of resilience and a veiled threat of revolution – nature’s beauty fused with militant ambition.
菊花
— 黄巢
待到秋来九月八，
我花开后百花杀。
冲天香阵透长安，
满城尽带黄金甲。
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