Chapter Five

Chapter Five Secret Attendance upon the Heir Apparent

Introductory Remarks

Despite the anachronisms found in the two Tang Histories concerning the Jianghuai Incident, their account of Wen’s return to the capital after the Incident is faithful to what really happened. This can be seen clearly in the following couplet of “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”, as already cited earlier:

57 From afar I gazed back beyond a thousand leagues, 遠目窮千里,

And my returning heart flew to the Nine Highways. 歸心寄九衢.

This provides the information that after Wen reached Jianghuai, thus ending his long journey, he returned to the capital. What motivated Wen to go to the capital once more? In the black and white terms of the two Tang Histories, he did so “to unburden himself of the clerk’s slander and vilification”, “in the hope of clearing himself of the false charges laid against him”. In other words, he was seeking to escape the eunuchs’ persecution and extricate himself from his predicament. As we know, it was precisely because of his unfavorable family background that Wen purposely avoided a career in the capital, the political center, preferring instead a vagrant life under various local patrons. Now in desperation, he found himself in such straits that he was forced to give up his life in the provinces and travel to the capital for support, disregarding the dangers he had to face in the capital, “at the feet of the emperor.” The following lines give a vivid description of what Wen faced before he was successful in finding a position in capital society.

58 To enjoy sound sleep the price is to suffer long depression, 寢甘誠 滯, To be served free soup, I have to act with caution and attention. 漿饋貴睢盱.

59 A calling card in my pocket, my name was ruled out before a visit; 懷刺名先遠, To help the time, my Way was appreciated by few. 干時道自孤.

60 By molars and incisors I was repeatedly recommended and praised, 齒牙頻激發, With umbrella and bookcase my road was yet rugged and rocky. 簦笈尚崎嶇.

“To be served free soup”, a metaphor for being offered any favor, alludes to Zhuangzi: “I went into ten soup-shops to get a meal, and in five of them the soup was served before I had paid for it.” ¹ “Pocketing calling cards” alludes to Ni Heng (禰衡, 173-98), who went to the capital but because of his pride, found it hard to visit anybody until the characters on his cards were worn illegible.² “By molar and by teeth” means to be commented upon by many people. “Umbrella and bookcase” make up the outfit of a traveling literary man, are hence here a synecdoche for Wen’s own official career.

It was unlikely that Wen would be able to find any position in aristocratic circles in the capital, acting completely on own, therefore, in order to gain an access into fashionable society he had to look attentively about for an opportunity. Wen reminds us that, endowed with a nature similar to that of Ni Heng, and numbering the eunuchs among his mortal enemies, it was difficult for him to progress. Few officials in the capital were willing or courageous enough to accept him, given both his fame and infamy. Because of his unyielding loyalty and rectitude to the Tang Empire, his Way with respect to state policy asserted itself as an ambition to curb and even to eliminate the eunuchs. This was the dream of many honest literati during this time. However, after many disastrous failures, it proved to be unfeasible, and was “appreciated by few.”

Subsequently, Wen tells us about his fruitless attempt to progress in the central bureaucracy of the capital. Nevertheless, he was in high favor with several important statesmen, including his teacher, Li Cheng, who at one time was Prime Minister, and Pei Du, the most influential and meritorious minister of the Late Tang period. But as a result of the eunuch politics, he was treated as an alien pariah by his snobbish contemporaries, and was denied any opportunity for promotion through normal channels. For this reason the way before him remained “rugged and rocky”.

Following the couplets cited above from “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” is an extremely obscure account of Wen’s attendance upon the Heir Apparent, the central topic of this chapter. This obscurity necessitates an examination of all details contained in every relevant record, despite the baffling difficulties such inquiry entails. Initially, we will give a brief introduction.

Professor Zhan Antai³ first suggested that there may have been a close relationship between Wen and the Heir Apparent, but because of lack of evidence, his argument is not convincing. An examination of this episode, from the point of view of Wen’s private experience, commits us to numerous investigations into the complexities of both the historical and literary sources. In the Late Tang period, poetic artistry had fully matured; simultaneously, eunuch politics impelled Wen to make maximum use of his scholastic ability, in order to express his political view, without incurring persecution. “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” is a unique composition created against this background. The true circumstances of Wen’s attendance upon the Heir are lost in the perplexing labyrinth of Wen’s poetic contrivances and in the maze of the histories. In particular they are deeply obscured behind the camouflage of the abstruse artistic expressions found in this long poem.

Before we go into the details of our study, we must first of all, reach a basic understanding of the general situation in which the Heir Apparent Incident took place, so as to get a better look at Wen’s particular role in this historical event. By the “Heir Apparent Incident”, we mean the incident in which the Heir Apparent, Li Yong (827-838) or Zhuangke (莊恪), as he was posthumously honored, became a victim of eunuch power. What Wen did and said during this incident, once clarified, will provide evidence sufficient to refute most, if not all, of the traditional prejudices towards him. In order to reverse the verdict, however, we must exercise great caution and consult as many historical sources as possible.⁴

After the Sweet Dew Incident of 835, as the eunuchs revenged themselves upon Emperor Wenzong (808-840, r. 827-840) for his participation in the machinations against them, the emperor became increasingly subject to their control. Having relinquished almost all his power and hopes, Wenzong now attempted in every way possible to set up his Heir Apparent, Li Yong, in a desperate effort to save his dynasty. He chose famous Confucian scholars to be his son’s mentors⁵ in the vain hope that training him to be a worthy successor would release his empire from the prevailing impasse. Unfortunately, conflicts arose between two imperial consorts: Worthy Consort Yang (楊賢妃, d. 840) and Virtuous Consort Wang (王德妃, d. 838), Li Yong’s mother. Taking advantage of these conflicts, the eunuchs clandestinely took the Heir’s life. Before discussing the details of this aftershock of the Sweet Dew Incident at greater length, we will first introduce the relevant records in the official histories, revealing how the incident developed, step by step, to its inevitable end.

Li Yong, the eldest son of Emperor Wenzong, was designated Heir Apparent in the sixth year of Dahe (832). His mother, Wang, was given the title Virtuous Consort in the eighth month of the second year of Kaicheng (837), and Worthy Consort Yang accepted her title at the same time. Yang was successful in monopolizing the emperor’s favor, perhaps because she was younger and possessed of more ingratiating glamour. As a result, Virtuous Consort Wang fell prey to Yang’s slander and jealousy, and in the eighth month of the third year of Kaicheng (838), was ordered by the emperor to commit suicide. Consort Yang, fearing that the Heir would subsequently do her harm, spared no efforts to slander him and to effect his deposal. She spread gossip that the Heir “knew nothing but immoderate entertainment while disregarding proper etiquette and decency.”

Li Yong was too young to answer these charges. Emperor Wenzong, having been totally misled by his favorite consort, decided to depose the Heir for his faults. He convened a conference to discuss the matter, giving audience to all his court officials of the fifth rank or higher. This meeting took place in the Yanying Palace (the royal meeting hall for great occasions), on the Renxu day of the ninth month of the third year of Kaicheng (Oct. 25, 838). At the meeting, many important and influential ministers, including perhaps Pei Du and prime ministers belonging to the Li Faction, tried their uttermost to consolidate the young Heir’s position. Consequently, several ministers and all of the attending officials agreed unanimously that the Heir Apparent was still very young and could be expected to mend his ways. Most impressive was the Censor-in-Chief, Di Jianmo’s (狄兼謨, fl. 810-40) vehement and tearful remonstration against Wenzong’s intended course of action, which brought the emperor to his senses. On the following day the Heir was ordered to return to his normal residence, the Shaoyangyuan (少陽院), and the trouble seemed for the moment to have come to an end. However, the Heir unexpectedly died on the Gengzi day of the tenth month of that year (Dec. 5), about forty days after the Yanying conference. In the following year, Wenzong put to death a musical officer and a palace lady, saying that “It is your like that entrapped my heir”. Concerning this event, the Song Dynasty historiographers remark only that “The Heir after all did not mend his ways, but his death was not a normal one”, and “affairs in the inner palace remained a secret, to which none of the outsiders could know the details”. ⁶

Regarding the details surrounding the Heir Apparent’s death, including both its cause and its result, the following aspects of the incident merit our attention.

First, the opposing factions, Niu and Li, originally held clearly different attitudes toward the two imperial consorts. Worthy Consort Yang was a clan aunt of Yang Sifu, one of the chiefs of the Niu Faction, who, it was said, had tried to persuade his aunt to follow the example of Empress Wu (武后, 624-705, r. 684-701), and “administer the state’s affairs from behind the curtain” (i.e., to become the second female-ruler of the empire). At the Yanying Palace conference, however, the court officials had spoken with one voice against the deposition of the Heir. This is an indication that events had developed to such a point that the eunuchs would flagrantly intervene, so that the two factions, despite their different political attitudes towards the event, were forced for the moment to join forces against the eunuchs.

Secondly, “Since the Heir Apparent’s death, the emperor felt deep regret” [for his own mistake]. His regret was not that he had adopted the suggestion of his ministers (that “the Heir, as the most important basis of the empire, should never be removed without serious consideration”), but that he had recklessly brought about the destruction of his own son, having presented an opportunity to the eunuchs, who were always seeking to revenge themselves upon him and to achieve their ulterior purposes. In the tenth month of the fourth year of Kaicheng (839), the emperor remarked to one of his ministers: “I, honored as the Son of Heaven, could not even protect my own son” and “I am under the sway of my house-slaves, in a much worse status than King Nan of the Zhou [周赧王, r. 268-56, BC] and Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty [漢獻帝, r. 190-219].” From such recorded remarks we can infer that the eunuchs were those who dared murder his Heir, and not the musical officer or palace lady, put to death as scapegoats.

Thirdly, the Li Faction had supported the Heir more effectively than had the Niu faction, but after the Heir’s death, Emperor Wenzong placed more confidence in Yang Sifu and Li Jue, prime ministers from the Niu Faction, which had the upper hand at the time. Thus factional strife was renewed in a different situation. In the historical context, however, vying for power as they were, the two factions were able to be so only by vying for more imperial favor. Since both factions subjected themselves to mutual supervision in the face of their common enemies–the eunuchs, they remained in constant allegiance to the state dynasty and seldom exhibited the slightest disobedience to the emperor. It is out of the question to suspect either faction of a crime like the murdering the Heir.

Fourthly, the eunuchs had been displeased with Wenzong for a long time, and following the Sweet Dew Incident, they had conspired to replace him with another royal clansman. Two days before Wenzong died an untimely and wretched death, ⁷ the eunuchs advanced the timing of the coup d’état. Despite the fact that another crown heir had been named, they positioned Li Chan, one of Wenzong’s inconspicuous younger brothers, to assume the throne, bearing the bizarre title Imperial Fraternal Heir (皇太弟), who was known as Wuzong (r. 840-846). Immediately following Wenzong’s death, the eunuchs incited the newly enthroned Wuzong to slaughter Worthy Consort Yang, Prince An and Prince Chen. In close succession, the Niu Faction prime ministers Li Jue and Yang Sifu were dismissed from office, allowing the Li Faction to rise to full power.

Even after Wuzong’s ascension to the throne, the eunuchs still “bore grudges against” the dead Wenzong because he never had not resigned himself to their control and desired to eliminate them once and for all. They chose and set up Wuzong in the expectation that doing so would earn his gratitude and result in him becoming their puppet emperor. They instigated him to kill Consort Yang, not merely because the charge of “plotting to administer the state’s affairs from behind the curtain”, but also because they desired to deceive the public by placing the blame for the Heir’s murder solely on Yang. They killed Prince An and Prince Chen as part of their conspiracy to eliminate any witnesses to their secret crime, as well as to aggravate the contradictions between the Niu and Li factions, making it easier to take control of the new emperor and to monopolize all court power. Therefore, though Worthy Consort Yang must bear much of the responsibility for the death of the Heir Apparent, the true culprits were the eunuchs. The eunuchs, however, did not murder the Heir to aid Consort Yang. They also did not want to effect the murder openly, because this would not serve their political goal. Instead, their aim was to tighten their control on court power by exploiting the conflicts between the imperial consorts and the attending factional strife. In this sense, the Heir Apparent Incident was an extension of the Sweet Dew Incident, and a concentrated expression of the various contradictions within the ruling clique. Obviously it was enmeshed in backstage maneuvering in the inner court, the struggles between the Southern and the Northern offices, and in the factional strife. If Wen did indeed become entangled in any of these intricacies, his experiences must have been closely linked with the political taboos of his day, and any works he wrote which reflected the relevant truth concerning these taboos must needs be obscure, otherwise their circulation would have been prohibited and they would never have been handed down for our study. However, this analysis of the secret history of the inner court must remain more inference than proven conclusion, unless we can discover concrete references in Wen’s works to substantiate it.

Clues Found in Wen’s Works

The following are the only poems in Wen’s works directly bearing the title of the late Heir.

Two Dirges for the Late Heir Apparent Zhuangke

(莊恪太子挽歌詞二首, WFQ, J. 3)

Amidst the fast drumbeats your soul is leaving the palaces, 迭鼓辭宮殿,

While grief-laden reed-notes descend from the gloomy firmament. 悲笳降杳冥.

The shadow is detached from the sun behind the clouds, 影離雲外日,

And the light is extinguished on the Star in Front of the Fire, 光滅火前星.

The retainers of Ye looked up to the Qin Garden, 鄴客瞻秦苑,

Then the Seniors of Shang came down to the Han court. 商公下漢庭.

Heartbreaking is the color of the trees on your tomb, 依依陵樹色,

Which vainly remains green surrounding the Nine Plains. 空繞九原青.

In this dirge saturated with profound sorrow, the poet not only laments Li Yong, but also he meditates on the contributory causes of the young prince’s untimely death. The second and the third couplets are more than mere scenic descriptions.

In traditional usage, “The sun behind the clouds” is a metaphor for a deluded emperor, hence it hints that Wenzong was controlled by his “house-slaves” and duped by his favorite consort. In the same fashion, “Shadows are detached” refers to the young heir’s helpless alienation from his emperor-father. “The light is extinguished” plainly refers to the death of Li Yong: apart from referring to the sparks in front of a fire of burned paper (as an offering to the dead), “the Star in Front of the Fire” (火前星), or “the Front Star of the Heart Constellation” (心宿前星) of the Twenty-Eight Constellations (二十八宿), is the heavenly counterpart of the Heir Apparent⁸ in Chinese traditional astrology.

The third couplet recalls the situation before Zhuangke died: how, many court officials, especially those serving him, supported the Heir as much as they could. “The retainers of Ye” (鄴客), here used in antithesis to “the Seniors of Shang” (an allusion), must allude to something. As Ye City was one of the five capitals of the Wei Dynasty (220-65), the allusion must concern the literati of Ye City (鄴下文人), i. e., the famous Seven Masters of the Jian’an Era (196-219), here used to refer to the assistants of the Heir, including Wen. Logically, the line has no implication that Wen was traveling in Ye; ⁹ rather, it means that as an assistant of the Heir, Wen looked to Emperor Wenzong for an act of grace to his young lord. Reasons why Wen likened the assistants of the Heir to the literati of Ye City will be brought to light in what follows.

In Wang Qi’s (王起, 760-847) “Imperial Memorial Essay for the Late Heir Apparent Zhuangke” (莊恪太子哀冊文), ¹⁰ we read:

Now the waves of Shaohai have vanished, and the canopy of the Western Garden no longer flies.¹¹ The assistants and aides from Mount Shang have dispersed, and the guests of Bowang Park have all gone ¹² (有少海之波逝, 無西園之蓋飛. 商山之羽翼已散, 望苑之賓客咸歸).

The “Western Garden” is a famous garden where the Wei princes, Cao Pi (曹丕, 187-226) and Cao Zhi (曹植, 192-232) once amused themselves with their retainers. In Wang’s essay, undoubtedly, the term refers exclusively to the Heir’s residence, even though in ordinary cases, it indicates imperial gardens without particular designation. In Wen’s dirges, the term is used in like manner. The “assistants and aides from Mount Shang” in Wang’s essay, like the “Seniors of Shang” in Wen’s dirge, alludes to the well-known Four White-haired Seniors of Mount Shang (商山四皓), who came down from their seclusion to dissuade Emperor Gaozu from deposing his Crowned Heir.¹³ In this context, the term refers to the veteran ministers who were against Wenzong’s move to depose his Heir. Thus, the connotation of the “retainers of Ye” is further defined. It does not allude to the retainers of other Cao-Wei princes. Rather, it alludes exclusively to Cao Zhi, who met a miserable end after Cao Pi took the throne. Thus, this allusion fits Wen’s purpose of alluding obliquely to the Heir’s tragedy.

Poem Two

At the Eastern Mansion there are honor guards in vain, 東府虛容衛, ¹⁴

To the Western Garden I send my yearning dream. 西園寄夢思.

When a phoenix was hung, ‘twas the night to play tunes, 鳳懸吹曲夜,

As the cockcrow interrupted, the time to salute your parents. 雞斷問安時.

On the dusty road the capital people feel resentful, 塵陌都人恨,

In the frosty suburbs the mourning horses neigh sadly. 霜郊 馬悲.

What is left is only the land where the jade was buried, 惟 埋璧地, ¹⁵

Where misty grasses encroach upon the crimson steps. 煙草近丹墀.

Now that the “Eastern Palace” is bereft of its master, the “Western Garden” is bereft its parties. If Wen had no memory of frequenting the “Western Garden”, it would make no sense for him to mention “sending his yearning dream” there.

What often haunted his dreams were former days when he was in company of the Heir, as revealed in the second couplet. “Phoenix” is the short form for “phoenix pipe”, i. e., Xiao (簫). It was said that the Xiao resembles in shape the wing of the legendary phoenix.¹⁶ “To salute your parents” refers to set etiquette observed by royal heir and alludes to King Wen’s story: when he was Heir, he went to inquire about his parents’ health three times a day, early in the morning, at noon and at night.¹⁷ It is certainly not the Heir alone playing (the pipe) at the time, to the exclusion of “the retainers of Ye”. Playing the Xiao or Sheng (笙) at night at the Heir’s palace is exactly what Wen was capable of, because he “could play all stringed and wind instruments that come to his hands” (有弦即彈, 有孔即吹). ¹⁸ A synecdochic description of the etiquette the Heir followed serves to reaffirm the legality and sanctity of his capacity as imperial heir, witnessed most certainly.

A careful reexamination of Wen’s choice of words in the second couplet will disclose some more subtle implications. “Interrupted” (斷) also means “broken” or “cut off”, that is, the formality the Heir followed came to an end. Even the verb “hung” (懸) has a melancholy overtone: the former happy meetings, now suspended, had vanished like mist and fog, never to return.

These two dirges, besides expressing the poet’s deep emotions towards the imperial heir and forming a mournful reflection upon his death, hint to the readers that Wen might have had a special and familiar relationship with this young person. There is a unique quality of feeling to these poems that far surpasses in depth the ordinary “resentment” harbored by the “capital people.” These two poems voice the profound grief of a close attendant to the Heir, the focus of many hopes, whose tragic death had spelled the ruin of the poet’s prospects. The information they contain must not be ignored. But even if we for the time being set aside the indications found here, we can still find ample clues, which, once correctly analyzed, fully support our inferences here. After all, Wen was impelled to vent his feelings and opinions on this issue, although he did so in very obscure terms. Consider the following example (Ancient Idea, 古意, WFQ, j. 3):

I do not worry that it takes me long to meet my “spring”, 不慮見春遲,

I vainly grieve for having presented myself in the wrong way. 空傷致身錯.

That is to say, what has disheartened Wen is not that he had his opportunity too late in his political career, but that he had followed the “wrong” way to begin with, and dooming himself to lifelong misfortune. If it were not his attendance upon the Heir that once briefly opened and then forever blocked his way to any promotion, what could it be?

Another example is from the “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”:

11 I was indeed seeking fish by climbing a tree, 定為魚緣木,

And for a second rabbit, by the stump I waited. 曾因兔守株.

“Climbing a tree to seek for fish” and “to wait by a stump for a second rabbit to come” are both common metaphors for expecting the impossible to occur by ridiculous means. Here Wen hints at the fruitless efforts he once made in a bid for official advancement. Again we are compelled to connect the “impossible” to the Heir Apparent Incident, which excluded Wen forever from political success once and for all. Oblique references such as these are found throughout Wen’s existing works and are too numerous to ignore. The following couplet from “Fifty-rhyme Poem” also deserves attention:

I had taken the wrong way to present myself, 投足乖蹊徑,

And then I absorbed myself in the classics and scriptures. 冥心向簡編. (The Fifty-Rhyme Poem, WFQ, j. 6)

It is plain that this unseen event happened immediately before Wen decided to take the civil service examination in the fourth year of Kaicheng (839). Taking into consideration the information offered in his two dirges, we can reasonably infer that the political experience he wishes to keep from being publicized very probably had something to do with his connection to the Heir, although we are uncertain at the moment about the exact nature of the relationship.

Evidence Elicited from A Study of Two Epistles

The following epistles serve to enlighten us on this special question.

Epistle Thanking Minister Li of Xiangzhou (謝襄州李尚書啟)

Your humble student wishes to say: endowed with the trite material of an altar oak-tree and the useless qualities of Void-space Village, ¹⁹ I had really no merits to serve your wise and beneficent Excellency. Would that I could pull [His Majesty’s] sleeve in the Purple Polar [palace], and carry the writing brush on the crimson steps. Thinking about my shallow and futile person, I know it certainly goes too far to wish so. How could I know that while following you in the decorated boat I was all of a sudden promoted to the Cassia Garden²⁰ and without betaking myself to the Orchid Gate, I already took hold of the iris ink-paste²¹ (某啟: 某櫟社凡材, 蕪鄉散質. 殊無績效, 堪奉恩明. 曷當紫極牽袂, 丹墀載筆! 顧循虛淺, 實過津涯. 豈知畫舸方游, 俄升于桂苑. 蘭扃未染, 已捧于芝泥).

All this is because of the favor of ascending your hall and the honor of being recorded and registered.²² The tiny being of a swan’s down was revitalized by riding on a whirlwind of sheep-horn.²³ The daily blessing I got from you is boundless, and I will forever look up to your loving kindness of rebirth; and the coming of this chance follows its own course, how could I know the way to go forward? In my awe and fear and hesitation, I know not what to say. And until I find an opportunity to express my gratitude in your presence, my yearning and reverence for you are vainly deep and everlasting (此皆寵自升堂, 榮因著錄. 勵鴻毛之眇質, 托羊角之高風. 日用無窮, 常仰生成之德; 時來有自, 寧知進取之規? 兢惕彷徨, 攀戀空深).

In studying this epistle, we must pay particular attention to the fact that this epistle appeared in the Song Dynasty encyclopedia Wenyuan Yinghua (653: 3357), under the subtitle Xieguan (謝官), “Thanks for Having Obtained an Official Position.” That is, Wen was appointed to a position that we cannot ignore. From this text we do see that he is extending his deepest gratitude to Minister Li for providing a recommendation, which resulted in Wen, despite his “useless qualities”, being unexpectedly put into an important position. Moreover, Wen also demonstrates his determination to devote himself to that position, in spite its precarious nature and to live up to Li’s expectation despite facing a very menacing situation.

The first question we must ask is: what kind of relationship could there be between Minister Li and Wen, which would prompt Li to sponsor him? Minister Li must have been Wen’s teacher. This can be understood from the phrase “the favor of ascending your hall and the honor of being recorded and registered.” Because Wen was Li’s student, and, we might add, an excellent student, Li recommended Wen for the position mentioned, offering him an opportunity for rapid and direct advancement. “Teacher” here must be understood to imply a relationship as much more meaningful than its modern counterpart. In the Late Tang period a teacher was somebody who chose and instructed his disciples in all the learning necessary for passing the civil recruitment examination; he was more important than an Examination Administrator (座主) in that, from beginning to end, the students and teacher shared a common political orientation. In other words, the teacher usually exerted immense influence on his students. This was particularly so when he was at once the student’s patron and official superior, as was the case with Wen and this Li. As our later studies will bear out, Minister Li and Wen were truly an extraordinary teacher-student pair.

Our second question is: what exactly was this position, eliciting both ecstasy and scruples on the part of our poet? This might be more baffling than our first question. In an attempt to discover an answer, we will follow Wen’s own train of thought as manifested in the epistle.

Because of his “trite material” and “useless qualities”, Wen really had not expected that he would be offered such a position as the one for which Li recommended him. That is to say, never before had he dreamt of becoming an official directly serving His Majesty, with the possibility to “pull the sleeve [as Remonstrator, say, an Attending Censor]” or “carry the writing-brush [as an Imperial Diarist].” Nevertheless, it is not likely that Wen would have hinted at these two official titles without substantiation or purpose. The implication is that the position to which he was appointed resembled the ones alluded to here. He tells us that while he was accompanying his teacher and waiting for a chance, he was, to his surprise, promoted to “the Cassia Garden”; and, without troubling himself to go to the “Orchid Gate”, was directly raised to such a status that he could “take hold of the iris ink-paste.”

We must endeavor to find out the answer of the following question: what did Wen mean by “the Cassia Garden” and “Orchid Gate”?

“Cassia Garden” can refer to nothing else but “the Cassia Area”, i. e., the Editorial Service under the Left Secretariat in the Household of the Heir Apparent (太子左春坊司經局). The reasons for this inference are as follows:

(1) “Promoted to the Cassia Garden” is a phrase strongly suggests that “the Cassia Garden” is an official institution.

(2) According to the “Records of the Hundred Officials” (XTS, 49:1294), “In the third year of Longshuo (663), the Editorial Service was changed to Academy of Cassia Fragrance” (桂芳館), which was also called “the Cassia Area” (桂坊). Apparently, in these terms, the Chinese characters Fang (坊, area), Yuan (苑, garden) and Guan (館, academy) are terms that were used interchangeably in the context to refer to the same official institute. The Cassia Garden is none other than the Editorial Service.

(3) The official institutes of the Heir Apparent are related to “Cassia”, as can be traced as far back as the Han. According to “Annals of Emperor Cheng”: ²⁴ “Emperor Xiaocheng, the Heir Apparent of Emperor Yuan, originally lived in the Cassia Palace”. This Cassia Palace is identical to the Cassia Garden, which was the conventional abode of the Heir Apparent. “Cassia Garden” used in place of “the Cassia Palace”, besides alluding to history, is an exact reference to fact.

(4) There are precedents showing that poets prior to the Tang substituted “Cassia Garden” for the palace where the Heir Apparent lived. Yu Xin’s (庾信, 513-581) “Poems About the Painted Screen” (詠畫屏風詩) has the lines: “Easygoing and carefree we are playing in the Cassia Garden \ Single and alone I come to the Peach Spring” (逍遙游桂苑, 寂寞到桃源). Zong Guai’s (宗 , 456-504) poem “Bidding Farewell to Consular Xiao” (別蕭諮議) states how: “Dismally and glumly I come over to the Cassia Garden \ Pityingly and Calmly I look on the beautiful pond” (悵焉臨桂苑怅焉 \ 憫默瞻華池). ²⁵ Yu Xin’s poem was written when he served in the Eastern Palace whereas Zong Guai’s was the product of his service as the Western Mansion Academician under the Jingling Prince of Qi (齊竟陵王), ²⁶ both readily analogous to the Heir Apparent.

Taken together, this becomes strong evidence that Wen once served in the Editorial Service under the Left Secretariat in the Household of the Heir Apparent. This will be further clarified and doubly confirmed by establishing the exact meaning of “Orchid Gate”, which, in this context, should also refer to an official institution closely connected with and similar to that of “the Cassia Garden.” As the Censorate was also called “the Orchid Terrace” (蘭臺), it is logical that we take “Orchid Gate” as a variant for “Orchid Terrace” and thus for the Censorate. But what did the Censorate have to do with the Editorial Service under the Left Secretariat in the Household of the Heir Apparent? According to the “Records of the Hundred Officials” (XTS, 49:1295), “In the third year of Longshuo (663), the Editorial Service was changed to the Cassia Area, no longer subordinate to the Left Secretariat of the Heir Apparent, having under it the Academy for the Veneration of Worthies” (崇賢館); and as a governmental institution in the service of the Heir Apparent, compared with the official apparatus in the entire official system of the emperor, it “resembled the Censorate” (比御史臺); one of the two Supervisors of the Household of the Heir Apparent (太子詹事) was made its director and resembled the Censor-In-Chief (比御史大夫); it had two rectifiers, who resembled the Attending Censors (比侍御史), and four Literary Assistants (文學).... In the second year of Xianheng (671), the Cassia Garden again was made subordinate to the Left Secretariat of the Heir Apparent.”

Hence, the Editorial Service could also be called the “Orchid Gate”, although Wen’s descriptive term is somewhat exaggerated. However, this institution was analogous to the Censorate, even though it was not Censorate. That is why Wen, while serving in the Editorial Service, claims that, “without betaking myself to the Orchid Gate, I already took hold of the iris ink-paste” (芝泥). The implication is that, originally, one did need go to the “Orchid Gate” “to take hold of the iris ink-paste”; thus what Wen had now attained was not the “Orchid Gate”. Since nonetheless he managed to “reach hold of the iris ink-paste”, he is telling us he had obtained an appointment in the Editorial Service. A governmental institution pertaining to the Heir Apparent, the Editorial Service was counterpart of the Censorate in the complete official system under the emperor.

Since Wen “took hold of the iris ink-paste” in the Editorial Service under the Left Secretariat of the Heir Apparent, he is telling us that he served in that institution as a literary attendant. “Iris ink-paste” is a laudatory reference to the sealing ink-paste of more recent times, which was originally something so rare and precious that it related directly to the emperor, ²⁷ or at least to the confidential attendants of the emperor. On the other hand, censors and iris (芝) have been mentioned together since earlier time, for example: “For the immortal officials, those who take doses made of ordinary iris are censors” (仙官食眾芝為御史). ²⁸ Tang literati thus used the iris as a synecdoche for the Censorship or Censors, such as “From among the censer-perfuming censors comes the immortal, with cloudy saddle and feather canopy going down from the iris field” (薰爐御史出神仙, 雲鞍羽蓋下芝田). ²⁹ In brief, Wen Tingyun did attend on the Heir Apparent at one time, holding a post similar to that of an Attending Censor.

Next, we will proceed to establish the identity of Minister Li of Xiangzhou

Since no standard history has ever touched on this question, we must guard against unwarranted assumptions in our effort to substantiate our conclusion about this man’s identity. Who was the Li with enough power to raise Wen to such a height?

Because Wen came to the capital Chang’an after the Jianghuai Incident, which took place no later than the first year of Kaicheng (836), and because the Heir Apparent Li Yong died on December 5 of the third year of Kaicheng (838), in dating this epistle, we must confine our search to the years 836-838, during which period Wen gained access to the Heir by means of Li’s recommendation.

As indicated in the title of the epistle, Minister Li must have been one of the Military Commissioners in the garrison of Xiangzhou, the administrative headquarters for the Eastern Circuit of Shannan. Those who held the position of Military Commissioner of the Eastern Circuit of Shannan from 836 to 838 are Li Ao (from the eighth month of 835 to some time before the seventh month of 836), Yin You (殷侑, from the seventh month of 836 to the third month of 837) and Li Cheng (from the third month of 837 to sometime before the eighth month of 839). ³⁰ Careful deliberation between Li Ao and Li Cheng must result in the exclusion of Li Ao. Our arguments that Minister Li of Xiangzhou must be Li Cheng are as follows:

(1) Li Cheng was a person powerful enough to recommend Wen for the important and confidential position of attendant to the Heir Apparent. In the Tang Dynasty Li was one of the few prime ministers issued from the imperial clan³¹ who enjoyed the full confidence of the emperors. Furthermore, after obtaining the Presented Scholar degree as the first candidate in 796, Li held many important official positions in an official career spanning almost fifty years, both in the central bureaucracy and in various circuits. During the Kaicheng era, he became one of the most influential and respected veteran officials of his time.

(2) Prior to being appointed Military Commissioner of the Eastern Shannan Circuit, Li had held the position of the Honorary Minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs. That is why Wen addressed him as “Minister.” Actually Li Cheng, as a veteran court official, enjoyed a prestige even greater than that of a Prime Minister after his tenure in that position (825-7). We further note that Li had once held the position of Examination Administrator, which means his political influence over the contemporary officialdom was also wide and deep, since there were many who had gained their Presented Scholar degree through Li, subsequently becoming important officials.

(3) During the Late Tang period, it gradually became the fashion for erudite scholars to set up schools of their own and accept students as a means of disseminating the teacher’s academic and political thought. Li Cheng was a teacher of great reputation. According to his Biography in JTS (167:4372), he

Was a man of excellent and profound scholarly insight. However, he had an unconventional and unrestrained character, and paid little attention to trivial formalities. Moreover, as a teacher and senior court official, he was humorous and fond of making jokes, thus he incurred censure from some people” (藝學優深, 然性放蕩, 不修儀檢, 滑稽好戲, 而居師長之地. 物議輕之)

Like teacher like student. And what great similarities existed, in the criticisms to which both teacher and student were subjected, if not in their personalities!

(4) According to Li’s Biography in the New Tang History (131:4511), Li

Was a man of quick witticisms and eloquence. He had a simple and unpretentious style, and lacked an impressive and dignified manner. Moreover, despite the many confidential and distinguished appointments he had won, he was not well renowned. However, he was greatly appreciated by Emperor Wenzong, who once remarked: “The birds flying on high have their senior take the lead, and you are the senior one in my court” (為人辯給多智, 然簡兌無儀檢. 雖在華密, 而無重望. 最為文宗所遇, 曰: 高飛之翮, 長者在前. 卿朝廷羽翮也).

It is not by sheer accident that, when referring to his manner of composing poetry, Wen says in one of his two “Epistles Presented to Vice-Minister Jiang” (上蔣侍郎啟):

I have acquired a thorough mastery of the fair designs of the former worthies, because I heard the discriminating remark of the senior one (頗識前修之懿圖, 蓋聞長者之馀論).

Obviously “the senior one” indicates an individual person. We suggest that it refer to Wen’s teacher Li Cheng employing Emperor Wenzong’s commendatory remark.

(5) We have an additional reason supporting our identification of Li Cheng as Wen’s teacher. Among his contemporaries, Li was regarded as an exemplar in literary writing, as a Late Tang author Zhao Lin says of him (3: 16):

From the era of Yuanhe onwards, among those who excelled in both literary and applied writings are Magistrate of Liu Prefect Liu Zongyuan, Minister Liu Yuxi and Lord Yang; the latter two, in addition, were conversant with poetry. Beside these, Course Director Zhang Ji was good at composing songs and ballads, while Li He was adept in making new Music Bureau verses; all those having a fondness for songs and poems modeled themselves on these two. However, Prime Minister Li Cheng, Joint Director Wang Qi, Junior Mentor Bai Juyi and his brother, and Drafter of the Secretariat Zhang Zhongsu excelled in writing poems and prose works for examinations, those speaking about literary form and style followed the example of these five men（元和以來, 詞翰兼奇者, 有柳柳州宗元、劉尚書禹錫及楊公. 劉楊二人, 詞翰之外, 別精篇什. 有張司業籍, 善歌行; 李賀能為新樂府. 當時言歌篇者, 宗此二人.李相國程、王仆射起、白少傅兄弟、張舍人仲素為場中詞賦之最, 言程式者宗此五人）.

In conclusion, taking everything into account, Minister Li must be Li Cheng. Nobody else but Li Cheng would have been willing and able enough to be Wen’s teacher. In our later discussion concerning Wen’s change of name, we will find more details illustrating the immense influence Li exerted upon his disciple Wen.

Since this connection has remained totally undiscovered, readers of later generations have been ignorant of it. Not a single one of Wen’s contemporaries has passed down any reference to Li Cheng as Wen’s teacher. Therefore, our discovery concerning the role played by Li Cheng becomes more meaningful than it appears to be at first sight. It broadens the scope of inquiry into the details of Wen’s hidden relationship with the Tang imperial clan in general, and with Wenzong and his son Li Yong in particular.

Emperor Wenzong in his later years became a puppet in the hands of the eunuchs and the Tang imperial clan lost most of its power. This, however, does not imply that gaining access to the imperial heir would be a simple matter. Wen’s success in obtaining the opportunity to attend the Heir was the result of a long and cautious process. Even though he was an imperial relative with an imperial-clan Prime Minister as his teacher and mediator, Wen still had to pass a special examination, and his appointment had to be authorized by the emperor in person. All these details are revealed in Wen’s poetic or prose works, but never in clear and unequivocal terms. They constitute our story–history - of Wen’s attendance upon the Heir Apparent. The following epistle would appear more confusing, were it not for the above study of Li Cheng, but it does serve to uncover more hidden aspects of the same event.

Epistle Thanking Minister-Duke Hegan (謝紇干相公啟)

Your humble servant wishes to say: My talent [timber] cannot compare with trees such as teak and oak, and my literary compositions are neither brocade nor embroidery. Having roamed about thousands of li, I was appointed as no more than Aide to the Man-barbarian headquarters; having frittered away my time within a hundred years, I rested content with the rank of Clerk of Jingzhou Prefecture.³² I never dreamt that I would get wings and soar up with wind and cloud (某啟: 某材謝 , 文非綺組. 間關千里, 僅為蠻國參軍; 荏苒百齡, 甘作荊州從事. 寧思羽翼, 可勵風云).

How could I have expected that, with my trite and indolent person, I would find myself posted among the most confidential and privy [royal office]? ³³ Looking backward, I am going further and further from dirt and dinginess; going up on high, I am approaching the zenith of the blue heavens. The glory far exceeds my original expectation, and the position surpasses my initial wish (豈知持彼庸疏, 棲于宥密. 回顧而漸離淄垢, 冥升而欲近煙霄. 榮非始圖, 事過初愿).

All this is a consequence of promoting the fragrance [value] of literary worthies, allowing me to rise up from within our teacher’s door and wall. Now in the year when the School of Kong Qiu is making use of the rhapsody, Xiangru will enter the chamber; and on the day when the Kingdom of Chu is appointing its officials, Song Yu will ascend the platform.³⁴ The glory of a single day will brighten my life within a hundred years. Before I manage to extend my gratitude to you, I prostrate myself here at your feet, in reverence and awe (此皆揚芳甄藻, 發跡門墻. 丘門用賦之年, 相如入室; 楚國命官之日, 宋玉登臺. 一日光陰, 百生輝映. 未由陳謝, 伏用兢惶).

This epistle can be understood as another revelation of Wen’s liaison with the Heir. First, We notice that it was put together with the “Epistle Thanking Minister Li of Xiangzhou” under the subtitle of “Thanks for Having Obtained an Official Position” in Wenyuan Yinghua. It must therefore also be connected with Wen’s appointment as the Heir Apparent’s attendant, expressing Wen’s thankfulness to Hegan who helped him gain the position. The obvious reason is that, in Wen’s distress-filled life, another rapid advancement is inconceivable.

Having resigned himself to his destiny, Wen found himself “approaching the zenith of the blue heavens”, an extremely surprising occurrence. What can this mean but gaining direct access to the emperor? To be “posted in the most confidential and privy [royal office]” does mean to serve in an office under the Editorial Service in the Household of the Left Secretariat of the Heir Apparent. To further confirm this inference we must explain why we use “The most confidential and privy” to translate the original term宥密from its origin “High Heaven Had a Firm Charge”. This is an ode singing praise of how King Cheng, as the successor of King Wen and King Wu, carried on his forefathers’ enterprise. According to Zheng Xuan’s annotation and Kong Yingda’s sub-annotation, the term 宥密should mean [that King Cheng would put into practice a policy of] leniency and peacefulness (寬寧). To be used to describe a man, 宥密can mean generous and serene. To be used to describe an office, it takes on the meanings from its original: closely related to the (succeeding) monarch, important and confidential. Following this usage, later literati used the term to refer to a confidential and privy office related to the monarch in general, while Wen used it to refer to the official institution of the Heir Apparent in particular.

Another reason, furthering our argument, is found in Wen’s statement that “All this is a consequence of promoting the fragrance [value] of literary worthies, allowing me to rise up from within my teacher’s door and wall.” This suggests that Wen’s promotion through Hegan was closely linked to his teacher Li Cheng’s recommendation. Here we can infer that Li Cheng, as a senior minister, recommended Wen to Hegan, who happened to share part of the responsibility for the selection of the Ministry of Personnel. We are also justified in saying that becoming a member in the Heir Apparent’s retinue was an involved matter. The consent of the emperor himself was necessary in order to secure an important appointment such as aide to the Heir Apparent; if it were not given, the appointment would not be possible.

In this epistle, we find other important references, such as the allusion to Sima Xiangru and the Kingdom of Chu, through which we will discover more than we expect. When Wen says “Now in the year when the School of Kong Qiu is making use of rhapsody, Xiangru will enter the chamber”, he is likening himself to Sima Xiangru, the Han Dynasty eminent literatus, and declaring that when the opportunity presents itself, he will gain employment by displaying his outstanding literary talent. Wen’s pride in his own literary talent would be one of his reasons for referring himself as Xiangru incarnate. An additional reason for this self-styled epithet is that throughout the Heir Apparent Incident, Wen played a role somewhat similar to that of Xiangru--he composed poems sympathetic to Virtuous Consort Wang, in an effort to dissuade the fickle emperor from abandoning her. These poems were also designed to help her to regain His Majesty’s favor, a point that our later discussions of this topic will make apparent.

Wen’s remark that “on the day when the Kingdom of Chu is appointing its officials, Song Yu will ascend the platform” is also noteworthy. Wen compares himself to Song Yu of Chu, thus intimating that the official institution of the Heir is analogous to the Chu Kingdom. Since in Wen’s works, we find frequent references to “Chu”, we can draw out an important clue for unraveling other enigmas in his works: “Chu” stands for the Heir, and through the Heir, the whole empire. This knowledge is instrumental in clarifying many textual ambiguities in Wen’s works, such as the passage from “Epistle Presented to Minister Feng”:

Although I was unable to accompany Your Excellency wherever you went when the Kingdom of Chu was in search of talented men, as a student entrusted to you from inside the Confucian house, I had lived up to the expectation of my teachers.... Silly orphan that I am, I frequently found shelter or refuge (雖楚國求才, 難陪足跡; 而丘門托質, 不負心期,…顧惟孤拙, 頻有依投).

Based on the rewarding study of the “Epistle Presented to Minister-Duke Hegan”, we immediately understand what Wen is saying here: he was chosen to be an attendant of the Heir Apparent, thus he could not have followed Feng to the place where the latter held his official position. Recommended as an honest and competent attendant for “the Kingdom of Chu”–service to the Heir Apparent–Wen had fulfilled the hopes of his teacher. This is the reason why many officials, including this Minister Feng, appreciated Wen’s person and were willing to lend him the shelter of their name and position, and is another consequence of his attendance on the Heir Apparent.

In our later discussion we will find more items, which substantiates the analogy between Wen and Xiangru. But what interests us most now is identifying this Hegan and firmly establishing the relevant inferences we have drawn up to this point.

In the first half of the ninth century, there was a man of considerable reputation by the name of Hegan Qi (紇干 , fl. 820-50), who, though he has no biography in the two Tang Histories, is mentioned in various Tang historical sources. Concerning this Hegan Qi, there is an interesting anecdote recorded in Zhao Lin’s Yinhualu (3: 18):

In the third year of Kaicheng, I, to make up the number, was accepted as a Presented Scholar. The Examination Supervisor, Sir Hegan the Vice-Director under the Ministry of Justice, used to be a student of Prime Minister Cui Qun (772-832). When Hegan acquired the Presented Scholar degree, he joined others gathering in the small hall in the Prime Minister’s Xinchang mansion, to have audience with the Examination Administrator Cui. Now that he was appointed to be examining official, he borrowed Prime Minister Cui’s old mansion to accept his own student.... The first candidate, Sun Jue of He’nan, later became Assistant to Councilor prior to the Duke of Yanmen. Hegan was transferred as Inspection Commissioner of the Jiangxi Circuit, then returned [to the capital] to be Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Works, and was appointed Military Commissioner of Nanhai. He ended up being enfeoffed as the Duke of Yanmen (開成三年, 余忝列第. 考官刑部員外郎紇干公, 崔相群門生也. 公及第日, 于相國新昌宅小廳中, 集見座主.及為考官之前, 假舍于相國故第, 亦于此廳見門生焉. 敕頭孫河南 先于雁門公為丞. 公後自中書舍人觀察江西, 又歷工部侍郎, 節制南海, 贈雁門公).

We are given to understand that in the third year of Kaicheng Hegan Qi was the Examination Supervisor, concurrently holding the post Vice Director of the Ministry of Justice. The identical detail is also seen in Wang Dang’s Tangyulin (4: 135):

In the third year of Kaicheng (838), the Examination Supervisor of Calligraphy and Judgment, Sir Hegan, the Vice Director under the Ministry of Justice, was a student of the Prime Minister Cui.... (開成三年, 書判考官刑部員外郎紇干公, 崔相國門生也).

From the position Hegan Qi held in the year 838, we can roughly assume what kind of position he held in the previous year. Although we cannot pinpoint it exactly, we can safely say that it must have had something to do with the selection of civil officials, conducted by the Ministry of Personnel, the so-called “promoting the fragrance [value] of literary worthies.” Otherwise Wen would not have thanked Hegan upon attaining the position as mentioned in the Epistle. The civil-officials selection presided over by the Ministry of Personnel had as its purpose the selection of eligible officials, rather than Presented Scholars. The latter were chosen by Presented Scholar examinations presided over by the Ministry of Ritual. In the Late Tang period, the Presented Scholar Examination was the only option, and thus the most popular avenue, through which men of the common gentry entered into official services. However, because there were always too many candidates vying for the limited degree offered, many would by-pass the examination and go directly into official employment, if they could claim the so-called “hereditary privilege” (蔭). Although Wen’s family was in disgrace, theoretically Wen was still in a position to enjoy his “ancestral privilege”, and for this reason, among others, many were willing to allow Wen the opportunity to advance without sitting for the examination.

According to “Biography of Gao Yuanyu (高元裕) in XTS (177: 5283), Gao in his tenure as Left Assistant Chancellor (尚書左丞) in the second year of Kaicheng, was in charge of the selection for the Ministry of Personnel. About that time, Hegan Qi held the post of Vice Director of the Left Chancellor (左司員外郎), and Feng Ao held the office of the Director of the same office (左司郎中). Both might have played a part in the selection.³⁵ But we may logically raise the question: if we cannot find a Hegan Qi in the “List of Prime Ministers”, why is he addressed as “Minister Duke” (Xianggong, 相公) in Wen’s epistle? To answer this question, we will examine his official career and any possible relationship that might have existed between him and Wen.

Although no biographies of Hegan Qi are found in the two Tang Histories, we find many references concerning him in extant sources. His style-name was Xianyi (咸一), ³⁶ and he was a Presented Scholar of the tenth year of Yuanhe (815). ³⁷ In the third year of Dahe (829), when the Southern Barbarians entered the city of Chengdu, Hegan, then Assistant Commissioner of Jian’nan and Xichuan Circuit, was demoted to Chief Executive Official (長史) of Yingzhou Prefecture, for his dereliction of duty. During the Kaicheng period, he held the posts of Director of the Treasury Bureau (金部郎中) and Director of the Left Office (左司郎中). ³⁸ At the beginning of Huichang, he was shifted to the post of Director of the Granary Bureau (庫部郎中). Later, in the middle of Huichang, he became Drafter in the Secretariat (中書舍人). ³⁹ At the beginning of Dazhong, as Palace Aide to the Censor-In-Chief (御史中丞), he was sent out as the Inspection Commissioner of the Jiangxi Circuit.⁴⁰ Next, he reentered the court as Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Works, ⁴¹ and then he became Minister of a ministry in the central bureaucracy at court.⁴² Finally, he went out to be the Military Commissioner of the Lingnan Circuit.

Judging from the records available, two possibilities present themselves, and either of which might have qualified Hegan Qi to be addressed Xianggong. First, in Zhao Lin’s account of Yinhualu, Sun Jue “became Assistant Councilor prior to the “Duke of Yanmen” [Hegan Qi]; that is to say, Hegan Qi once was Left or Right Assistant to the Councilor, which qualified him to be addressed as “Xianggong” which we translate as “Minister-Duke” in most cases. Second, because Hegan was Examination Supervisor, in charge of the civil official selection for the Ministry of Personnel, and Wen Tingyun, as a result of Li Cheng’s recommendation, was chosen through Hegan. Their relationship, therefore, now resembled a relationship between the Examination Administrator and candidate student. A common practice since the Tang was for students to call their Examination Administrator Xianggong, causing the term, in this case, to lose its original meaning of “Minister-Duke”. Therefore, “Minister-Duke Hegan” is Hegan Qi.

Granted that Li Cheng was appointed Examination Administrator in the twelfth year of Yuanhe (817), while Hegan Qi, Feng Ao and Pei Yizhi (裴夷直, to whom Wen also presented an epistle appealing for support), ⁴³ were all Presented Scholars of the tenth year of Yuanhe (815), we can understand why Li Cheng was considered a veteran minister in the eyes of his junior contemporaries such as Hegan Qi, Pei Yizhi and Feng Ao, even though they had gained remarkable distinction themselves.

The Hidden Story in the Hundred-Rhyme Poem

Being involved in such an unusual experience would make it impossible for Wen to remain silent about it in his insightful and powerful autobiographical representation found in “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”, written in the winter of 840. Now, we turn to the central concern of this chapter, attempting to offer a relatively satisfying annotation of this poem. Among the very few critics who have mentioned this poem in their researches, no one as yet has succeeded in determining its basic purport, much less its precise implications. However, this is a poem, which a modern scholar, wishing to explore any topic connected to Wen Tingyun, cannot afford to leave misunderstood and unexamined.

In paraphrasing “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”, we must be cognizant of two facts. First, in this poem, we find an abundance of erudite allusion and archaic diction, and numerous terms used exclusively only in certain circles of the Late Tang literati society. The connotations of these terms are not completely accessible through modern reference works. Consequently, painstaking effort must be exerted in order to coax out the rich implications of each line. Once those obstacles are overcome, solutions become available, placing us in a position to grasp the poet’s meanings more exactly. Second, “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” is in the full sense an autobiographical account, with every line having a direct bearing on the author himself. We know that the syntax of Chinese prosody, especially that of regulated poetry, requires that personal pronouns, particularly first person pronouns, be avoided in most cases. This practice finds its unique expression in “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” in that, no matter how complicated the connotations of each line are, the grammatical role played by narrator, either as subject or as object or as anything else, is always implied but not stated, to be understood and filled in by the discriminating reader. In the meanwhile, the poem as a whole, maintains an intrinsic logical consistency of its own. In a sense, the poem becomes an artifice in which its author tells his story without the use of first person pronouns to refer to himself. In paraphrasing “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”, we must carefully insert these pronouns wherever desirable, discerning how the poet constantly shifts his roles: sometimes placing himself either in the front of the stage or behind the scenes, sometimes appearing with others or all alone, and sometimes voicing himself in asides or monologues or as part of a chorus with other voices.

What follows is our explanation of the passage extending from the the sixty-first to the seventy-fourth rhyme of “Hundred-Rhyme Poem.”–This explanation supplements and complements, in many respects, our story of Wen’s secret attendance upon the Heir.

First of all, the poem reiterates Li Cheng’s recommendation of Wen for the appointment with the consent of Emperor Wenzong.

61 The lotus mansion and the Marquis’ gates valued my talents, 蓮府侯門貴,

Thus, to the Frost Terrace came the consent of the royal mandate. 霜臺帝命俞.

The first line of this couplet tells very clearly that Wen was valued by “the lotus mansion” and “the Marquis’ gates”, i. e., he has the support of a distinguished Prime Minister. In view of our findings, we can say without hesitation that the Prime Minister referred to here was Li Cheng. As a result of Li’s recommendation, the emperor’s consent was issued to the Frost Terrace (the Censorate), prompting it to grant Wen a position there. As we know, in the Tang official system the Editorial Service of the Left Secretariat in the Household of the Heir Apparent resembled the Censorate, since as a component part of the miniature empire of the Heir, it functioned as the Censorate did in the state apparatus of the Empire. Therefore, it was to the appointment of Wen Tingyun as one of his son’s assistants in the Editorial Service that Emperor Wenzong gave his consent. Remembering that Wen came from a family of imperial relatives who had participated intimately in the changing fortunes of the royal clan, we are not surprised that he could conceivably serve Li Yong with Wenzong’s personal approval.

62 Now the steed’s hooves began to run swifter than gale, 驥蹄初躡景,

And the roc’s wings were about to spiral up to the zenith. 鵬翅欲摶扶.

A detailed account of what Wen witnessed as an attendant to the Heir begins with this couplet. Here both “steed’s hooves” and “the roc’s wings” are metaphors for Wen himself, who was a man of great talent and expectation, as he himself boasted. The first thing to impress the reader here is Wen’s reaction to his sudden promotion, giving him direct access to the Heir and connecting him directly to His Majesty himself. Now the poet envisages his tremendous opportunity to serve his young lord and his country, and resolves to do everything within his power to serve His Majesty’s heir. Here is an opportunity, which normally leads directly to great distinction and high office.

Then we are first shown how the Heir gave audience to his palace subjects:

63 Having stayed on duty, I returned on my dapple horse, 寓直回驄馬,

Sitting in different sections, we faced the dusky crows. 分曹對冥烏.

This is a description of the official routines Wen witnessed and participated in. On the surface, these routines resemble those of the Censorate, especially of the Attending Censors. “Dapple horse” is an allusion to an Attending Censor, Huan Dian, who often rode such a horse; “Dusky crows” alludes to a Censor-In-Chief, Zhu Bo. It was said that near Zhu’s mansion, thousands of wild crows perched on the cypress trees every day in the dusk.⁴⁴ However, since the Editorial Service in the Household of the Heir Apparent “resembled the Censorate” and “the two Rectifiers” of the Editorial Service “resembled the Attending Censors”, Wen is actually referring to officials of the Editorial Service, such as the Rectifiers (including himself), rather than the Attending Censor under the Censorate. The unusual frequency with which the “Attending Censors” or similar officials appear in this poetic passage adds more conviction to our argument: Wen would not have mentioned it so frequently, unless the title referred to his own official position in the Editorial Service, where he spent his most memorable days.

64 The Hundred Spirits attended, as it were, enjoying offerings, 百神歆仿佛, Isolated Bamboo was sending notes, dim and lost. 孤竹韻含胡.

Now we are invited into the Editorial Service where, as the first line of the couplet demonstrates, a solemn and imposing atmosphere reigned when “the Heir Apparent gave audience to his palace subjects.” If we remember that the Heir was once enfeoffed as Prince of Lu, it is likely that Wen is intentionally reminding his reader of the topic at hand, by alluding to the “Rhapsody on Ling’guang Palace of Lu”. ⁴⁵ The “Isolated Bamboo” is a flute made from a kind of bamboo that grows in isolation, which, yielding a sound peculiarly pleasant to the ear, was used in the sacrificial rites venerating the spirits. ⁴⁶ Here, antithetical with the “Hundred Spirits”, it suggests the pomp with which affairs were conducted in the Editorial Service. The “dim and lost notes” seem to betoken the Heir’s impending death.

65 In the Phoenix Hall we stood in lines to each side, 鳳闕分班立, From the egret rows with sword erect we paced forward. 鴛行竦劍趨. ⁴⁷

Here the poet depicts the scene of the Heir giving audience to his palace subjects, demonstrating all the majesty of the occasion. Wen must also be present in the “Phoenix Hall” and “egret rows.” During the court audience, the military and civil officials stood in separate groups paying reverence to their monarch; some of the Rectifiers on duty solemnly held (wooden) swords erect, in the performance of their official duty.

66 At confidential behest we butted against evil, 觸邪承密勿, On behalf of the royal plan we maintained the law. 持法奉 謨.

67 With jades clanging we strutted up and down, 鳴玉鏘登降, And the pendants’ soundings lingered faintly on. 衡牙響曳婁. ⁴⁸

“Butting against Evil” was the name of official cap worn by Censors. It was said that the King of Chu captured a legendary divine sheep, Xiezhi (獬豸), which could differentiate right from wrong and butt against evil people; thus the king ordered that the Censor’s cap be modeled from it. The Censor’s cap, the shaft of which was made of iron, symbolizes the holder’s irresistible and incorruptible power. ⁴⁹

These two couplets represent how the Attending Censors, i. e., the Rectifiers, including Wen, carried out their official duties. In Wen’s account, they were honest officials who held firmly to justice and to the imperial law without yielding to any unorthodox force. In Wen’s representation, all the officials serving the Heir assume a demeanor even more imposing and important than those ministers and dukes in the emperor’s court. Such rhetorical touches, we must point out, indicate Wen’s intention to commemorate the late Heir in a grand and spectacular way, especially since his miniature court had such a fleeting existence, in spite of all Wen’s own exertions to support it.

The following is a direct description of the Heir employing the most deceptive camouflage.

68 His Worship showed intimacy with Heshi’s Jade, 祀親和氏璧,

The Fragrance was attached to Boshan Censer. 香近博山爐.

An analysis of its connotation is of paramount importance to an understanding of the poem as a whole, and to the confirmation of our conclusion. We must reemphasize that this passage is exclusively a narration of the story of Wen’s attendance upon the Heir. In the verses leading up to it, we encounter vivid depictions of the working of the court etiquette in the palace where the Heir Apparent gave audience. In the verses following it, we will encounter more detailed representations of the imperial pomp and grandeur witnessed by Wen at meetings between the Heir Apparent and his subjects. Logically speaking, it would be very unusual if this passage were not to contain reference to the Heir himself, the key figure in these scenes. And, indeed, this couplet itself is designed precisely for the purpose of referring directly but subtly to the late Heir, concerning whose death at the hands of the eunuchs, it had become taboo to speak openly. By “taboo” we mean not only that the eunuchs, as murderers of the Heir, would never allow their conspiracy to be exposed, but also that the succeeding Emperor Wuzong’s political sensitivity was against this ignominy, the crucial event leading to his enthronement. The court officials, in no position to interfere in “the family affairs” of the emperors and unable to contend with the eunuchs, were forced to remain silent and to feign ignorance of this event. Whoever uttered the truth brought trouble upon himself. Therefore, Wen was forced to resort to roundabout language and to contrive a most sophisticated artistic expression of the whole story–especially because he had been the Heir’s personal attendant and knew full details of the matter. Fortunately, Wen’s many subterfuges enabled him to escape the eunuchs’ censorship. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter has remained undiscovered by later generations, to whom Wen wished to relate the full story.

A first step towards a solution of this enigmatic couplet is to suspect that the unusual usage of the verbs “shows intimacy with” (親) and “be attached to” (近), which are ordinarily applied to human-subjects or personifications, implies some deeper meaning. The Chinese character si (祀), which we translate as worship, means offering sacrifices or paying worship to the spirits and grammatically serves as the subject of the first line. Such a subject should have as its predicate the verb-object structure “showed intimacy with Heshi’s Jade.” It is apparent that both “Worship” and “Heshi’s Jade” are substitutes for unnamed human figures. In all probability, they are the Heir Apparent and his subjects. In like manner, the “Fragrance” (香) and the “Boshan Censer” in the second line must also imply a hidden metaphor. We must, however explain these metaphors clearly, offering not guesswork but proofs.

A tentative suggestion is that this couplet represents a ceremony of worship performed during a court audience: in the palace where the audience was held, joss-sticks (香) were burned in an exquisite Boshan Censer, from which fragrant smoke curled upward; to burn joss-stickers was to pay homage to “Heshi’s Jade”, which was the hereditary imperial seal made of precious jade and handed down as the symbol of royal power. This is a ceremony, which may have actually taken place in the palace. But a paraphrase of this kind does not throw new light on the hidden meaning of “show intimacy with” and “be attached to”, which are both verbs metaphorically representing some sort of human actions. A more careful scrutiny of the complex picture found in this couplet focuses our interest on the two pairs of nouns. Let us examine them one by one.

“Heshi’s Jade” is richly charged with metaphorical meanings. The primary meaning is derived from the original story in Hanfeizi: as the precious jade carved from the jade-enfolding stone, it is often used as a symbol for worthy and virtuous men. Judging from historical records, it may even have had some connection with the assistants of an Heir Apparent. ⁵⁰ In the text under discussion, even if limited to serving as a metaphor for worthy and virtuous officials, it takes on a personified meaning referring to the attendants of the Heir including Wen himself. To further illuminate this reading, we ought to refer back to the tenth rhyme in “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”:

10 Not in a position to sound the Jade of Chu, 未能鳴楚玉,

In vain I desired to hold the Pearl of [Marquis] Sui. 空欲握隋珠.

The “jade of Chu”, as we know, refers to Heshi’s jade. “To sound the Jade of Chu” involves another allusion: “Zhao Jianzi （趙簡子）, sounding his jade, became the Prime Minister”, ⁵¹ with the connotation of distinguishing himself as an honorable and important court official attending court audience. As we have pointed out earlier, Wen often refers to himself using language relevant to Chu in order to suggest his connection with the Heir. This couplet is thus more than a confession of Wen’s failure to serve the court with his brilliant talent, by means of the hint” the jade of Chu”, it also is connected with his private experiences of attending the Heir. By the same token, Heshi’s Jade is a metaphor for himself as the attendant of the Heir.

Since that which “Worship” “showed intimacy with” is metaphorically the Heir’s competent and honest attendants, the term “Worship” should be a term equivalent to “Heir Apparent” using a pun, a homonym or an insinuation. Is it really interchangeable with some term referring to the Heir? The answer is YES. We know that the Chinese character si, “Worship”, refers to the etiquette of offering sacrifices to the spirits. In Chinese imperial times, such sacrifice was looked upon as one of “the Eight Essentials” of the royal dynasty, and synecdochically, it could substitute for all government affairs. ⁵² Moreover, the character 祀 (si) is homonymous with 嗣 (si), ⁵³ the heir; hence in this context it becomes a euphemistic reference to the Heir. Therefore, the couplet indicates that the Heir showed intimacy with worthy men, his assistants.

Since the first line has such implication, logically the next line should bear the meaning that the worthy attendants were attached to the Heir. Fortunately, besides its literal meaning of “fragrance” or “joss stick”, the character 香 (xiang) is homonymous with 相 (xiang), which can, if used as noun, be glossed as assistant, i.e., the worthies around the Heir. To substantiate this point and make clear Wen’s punning techniques, we can look at the following lines in Wen’s “Melody of Damozhi” (達摩支曲, j. 2, WFQ) which employ similar homonymous puns:

The musk, even though it is smashed into powder, will not abandon its fragrance, 搗麝成塵香不滅, And the lotus, even when it is broken into pieces, will not forsake its silk 拗蓮作寸絲難絕.

Occupying the fifth syllable of both lines, 香 (xiang, fragrance) and 絲 (si, silk) combined are a homonymous pun on 相思 (xiangsi)–love yearning (metaphorically, political loyalty). This is a frequently used pun in the poems of Li Shangyin and Wen Tingyun, both of whom followed the examples of the Music Bureau poems of the southern dynasties. ⁵⁴ Making 香 and 祀 pun on 相 (attendant) and 嗣 (the heir) in the case at hand is, therefore, only a variant use of the 相思 (xiangsi) pun.

The Boshan Censer came into use in the Han Dynasty as a special adornment-utensil for the nobility. It is a nine-layer incense censer in the shape of Mount Bo (Boshan) located in the sea, with carvings of strange birds, rare beasts and other wonders on its body and water in its nethermost layer. Legend has it that the Western Queen Mother sends a Boshan Censer to Emperor Wudi. ⁵⁵ It appears that the term does not have anything special to do with the Heir. The last difficult question, then, is how the Boshan Censer could become a metaphor for the Heir in this context. In sources prior to the Tang, we locate the following texts for comparison with Wen’s usage of the term.

(1) During and after Han, in various dynasties, a Boshan Censer became an indispensable article in the officially regulated adornment-utensils of Heir Apparent. The Song Dynasty encyclopedia Taiping Yulan ⁵⁶ quotes “The Memorial of Presenting Miscellaneous Articles” (上雜物疏) by Emperor Wu of the Wei: “The Imperial Heir had four censers of pure silver.” It also quotes from “The Former Anecdotes of the Eastern Palace of Jin” (晉東宮舊事): “When the Heir Apparent was appointed and set up, he had in his possession one brass Boshan Censer” (皇太子初立, 有銅博山香爐一枚).

(2) There are some remaining precedents in pre-Tang literature in which the Boshan Censer refers to the Heir Apparent. Examples are “Song of the Boshan Censer” (詠博山香爐詩) ⁵⁷ by Liu Hui (劉繪, 458-502): “On the upper part is carved the Crown Heir of Qin \ Who, riding a crane, is soaring to the blue cloud” (上鏤秦王子, 駕鶴凌青煙). And the Zhaoming Heir Apparent, Xiao Tong (蕭統, 501-31), the compiler of Wenxuan, once wrote “Rhapsody On the Brass Boshan Censer” (銅博山香爐賦).

(3) Even in the Tang Dynasty, there was still type of decoration designed for the carriage and attire of Heir Apparent, which resembled “Mount Boshan in the ocean.” For example, “Part Six of the Imperial Heir’s Attires” of the “Records of Carriage and Attires” in XTS (24: 517) states: “For the Far-Trip Crown [a special crown for the Heir], it ought to have three shafts plus a golden Boshan.” All the evidence suggests that there was a special connection between the Heir and the “Boshan Censer”, although the original record of this allusion, from which all the later uses stem, is no longer extant.

(4) The Music Bureau poem “Yang Pan’er” (楊叛兒) contains the following lines: “My love is the joss stick plunging into the water \ and I am the Boshan Censer” (郎作沉水香, 儂作博山爐). ⁵⁸ These lines employ xiang (香, joss-stick) and Boshan Censer as metaphors for the love between lovers. Wen Tingyun was adept at using the love affairs between lad and lass as metaphors for the political relationship between the monarch and the subject. Here the line “The Fragrance is attached to the Boshan Censer” is just such a recreation from the Musical Bureau model, keeping its original diction xiang, “fragrance” or joss stick, and “the Boshan Censer” as euphemisms not for lovers, but for the Heir and himself. This serves to complete our explanation of Wen’s metaphor.

(5) Furthermore, perhaps out of fear that later readers would fail to understand his meaning, Wen wrote another poem entitled simply as “Boshan Censer” (博山香爐, j. 8, WFQ). This poem was written to vent his deep grief and is also connected to Wen’s political frustrations. These can be understood from the title of the poem and inferred from its last couplet, which, yet again, expresses frustration caused by Wen’s attendance on the Heir:

I hear say that Yang Zhu had no end of tears to shed, 見說楊朱無限淚,

Which were not, nay, vainly because the road forked away. 豈能空為岐路分?

Yang Zhu wept on coming to the forked way, because it leads to both south and north. Wen sheds tears in the manner Yang Zhu did; he, too, had his own torment to weep over. As we have read in “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”: “In my laments and sighs I felt melancholy as did Yang Zhu”–Wen’s frustrations are always connected to his political experiences, and especially with the eunuchs, Now, these frustrations are focused upon the Heir as well. Upon noticing that in the second line quoted above there is the character 岐 (qi), the very character Wen used as his changed name when participating in the Metropolitan Prefecture examination [after attending the Heir], we can infer that “the Boshan Censer” poem must be a work of extreme complexity, as we will demonstrate.

Now, at last, we have developed and proved our explanation of this couplet. The remaining task will possibly be easier. The following couplet describes the role Wen played in the Heir’s miniature court.

69 Auspicious sunshade grew dense on the emerald trees, 瑞景森瓊樹,

A light piece of ice brightened the jade pot. 輕冰瑩玉壺.

At the literal level it is still a vivid portrayal of objects in the palace: the fine jade-like trees growing luxuriously under auspicious sunlight, and pieces of ice placed inside a jade pot and used for dispelling the heat. But, as is the case with many other couplets, a layer of hidden meanings underlies the surface meaning of the language. Emerald trees, besides referring to real objects, refer metaphorically to the attendants around the Heir and a light piece of ice, as a metaphor for a pure and transparent heart, refers to the naiveté and artlessness of the youthful Heir, who, being about ten years old at the time, could be aptly described in this manner.⁵⁹

What is the role Wen played in the Heir’s “Miniature” court?

70 To my divine-sheep cap, an iron shaft is clasped, 豸冠簪鐵柱,

At the Dragon Head was the Golden bureau. 螭首對金鋪.

The couplets preceding the appearance of the Heir Apparent present a picture of the environment of his court, but from this couplet on, the poet purposely turns the readers’ attention to his personal position in this miniature court. As we have seen in the sixty-sixth rhyme, the divine-sheep cap was worn by the Attending Censor. In this context, it refers to the Rectifier in the Editorial Service, the official position assumed by Wen. Since the “Golden Bureau atop the Dragon Head” refers to the Left and Right Historiographers or Diarists, ⁶⁰ its corresponding position in the retinue of the Heir might conceivably be the Remonstrator (司議郎).

71 The Administrator’s calligraphy numbered a thousand scrolls, 內史書千卷,

The General’s paintings, one cabinetful. 將軍畫一廚.

“The Administrator” refers to the Jin Dynasty calligrapher Wang Xizhi (王羲之, 321-379), who once held the official position of Administrator of Kuaiji Commandery (會稽內史). “The General” here refers to Gu Kaizhi (顧愷之, 392-467), a well-known Jin Dynasty painter, who held the official position of Tigerhead General (虎頭將軍). Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy and Gu Kaizhi’s paintings were highly valued as imperial treasures during the Tang times. If Wen were to gain access to or even take charge of these imperial treasures during his attendance, his official position must have been similar to that of the Academician of the Institute for the Veneration of Literary Worthies (崇文館學士). What, then, was Wen’s official position? Was he a Rectifier, a Remonstrator, or an Academician? If we set aside the exaggerated elements in the poetic language and take into consideration the concrete historical milieu, the three above-mentioned positions could have been held by a single person. The reasons are:

(1) Just as there are the Probationary Censors, who, inferior to the Attending Censors, “are not formal officials, and not limited to a fixed number”, Rectifiers, as officials for Heir Apparent homologous to the Attending Censors, might also have their alternate members or sinecurists. And, with the precedent that Emperor Taizong promoted Ma Zhou (馬周) from commoner directly to the position of Probationary Attending Censor (監察御史里行), ⁶¹ Wen could lawfully have been promoted to a similar position, since he was an imperial relative who enjoyed powerful recommendation, and most importantly, possessed talents and pledged loyalty to the dynasty. All these factors combine to support the objective possibility that Wen could “ascend the heavens with one step” from the status of a commoner.

(2) Most of the emperors of the middle and late Tang eras were short-lived rulers who died before their son could be established as heir. Because of the usurpation of state power by the eunuchs, even when the emperor on the throne had sons, very few of them could become heir in accordance with usual practice. Thus the position Heir Apparent had lain vacant for many years. Furthermore, Emperor Wenzong’s inconsiderate measures towards his son contributed to the unchecked jealousy of Worthy Consort Yang, and as a result of the factional strife, the court officials failed to offer effective protection to the Heir. Consequently, the subordinate official institution of the Heir was far from adequate and complete. Emperor Wenzong, himself only a little more than thirty years of age, desired only to provide his son with good Confucian instruction, choosing many famous scholars to be his tutors. However, he was not yet ready to let the boy practice to be an emperor.

(3) Wen was writing an autobiographical poem, not filling out his own curriculum vitae. Accordingly, we cannot take what he says too literally. Comparing the accounts of his official positions in this poem, with that in the “Epistle Thanking Minister Li of Xiangzhou” (“I already reach hold of the iris ink-paste” ), it is highly possible that Wen functioned as an alternate Rectifier, concurrently serving as an Academician, a position approximate to that of a literary assistant with larger than fixed official duties.

72 My eyes were dazzled by the surprising display, 眼明驚氣象, And my heart awe-stricken at the grand scale. 心死伏規模. 73 I had never expected to look at the imperial treasury, 豈意觀文物, If it was useless to carve a crude jadeite like me. 何勞琢武夫. ⁶²

“To look at the imperial treasury” is a euphemism for Wen becoming a close attendant, an experience which redoubled his allegiance to the Tang Empire. However, not even such an opportunity could alter Wen’s fate. He was indeed, as he ironically states here, no jade to be carved–i. e., despite all the support he had enlisted, he suffered yet another failure. His untimely death ended all Wens’ endeavors to carve out a career through service to the Heir. Wen does not recount directly how the young heir met his end, because, on this occasion, it is unnecessary to relate the sad and complex story.

74 Grasses are luxurious - fit for grazing the Yaoniao Steed, 草肥牧 , Mosses rough - proper for tempering the Kunwu Blade. 苔澀淬昆吾.

“Grasses are luxurious” stands for “political conditions are favorable”. Yaoniao, a spirited steed, is said to appear only when a sage king is ruling, and is hence a metaphor for a successful minister. “Mosses [are] rough” refers to difficult situations. Kunwu is the name of legendary sword that could cut jade as easily as cutting butter.

Finally, reviewing his attendance on the Heir, Wen understood that a favorable political environment is requisite if talented men are to accomplish great feats for the Empire. He failed, to his dismay, to serve the Heir successfully to the end, because both he and the Heir were born at an unfavorable time. However, Wen was not a man easily dejected, on the contrary, the adversity he encountered made him even firmer of purpose and more fearless in action. Although Wen was forced to endure humiliation for the time being, he was now better equipped to play a role in the political arena, because he had experienced a major political event. Nevertheless, he found it difficult to resign himself to this abrupt failure.

Since we are now in possession of many details of Wen’s story, a topic of considerable interest and attraction opens up for us. It was by the recommendation of Li Cheng, through an examination by the Ministry of Personnel, and only after the personal consent of Emperor Wenzong that Wen was chosen to be an attendant of Li Yong, the Heir Apparent. Using this shortcut, Wen entered directly into the service of the highest ruler of the Empire. In the literary tropes and historical allusions, we have learned how Wen tried to make the best of his opportunities. Unfortunately, in the Late Tang period, the eunuchs always controlled the imperial succession, and thus the Heir Apparent, as a legitimate successor to the throne who had been set up without the approval of the eunuchs, became their target of attack, and his days as designated Heir were numbered.

There remain many questions to answer: how did the young prince die? What was Wen’s attitude towards all the participants in the event? What happened to Wen in the process and how did the events affect his later life (and poetry)? “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” answers only some of these questions, since it was unnecessary and impossible to answer them all, and the poet needed to leave other questions unanswered. What he wanted to recount to those he addressed this poem was the affliction he felt at the time. In searching for answers to these other questions, we must turn to other poems.