Song Dynasty Ci poem 鳳凰台上憶吹簫 Feng Huang Tai shang Yi chui xiao On Phoenix Terrace recalling playing the flute 李清照 Li Qing Zhao: pinyin, English translation, symbol of Chinese phoenix, phoenix bathing fire, allusions of Yang Guan and Wu Ling, and poet biography

鳳凰台上憶吹簫
Feng4 Huang2 Tai2 shang4 Yi4 chui1 xiao1
On Phoenix Terrace recalling playing the flute

李清照
Li3 Qing1 Zhao4

香冷金猊，被翻紅浪，起來慵自梳頭。
xiang1 leng3 jin1 ni2, bei4 fan1 hong2 lang4, qi3 lai2 yong1 zi4 shu1 tou2
The incense turned cold in the gold lion burner. Quilt ruffled and it stirred up crimson waves. I arose and had no mood to comb the hair.

任寶奩塵滿，日上簾鉤。
ren4 bao3 lian2 chen2 man3, ri4 shang4 lian2 gou1
Carelessly I let the valuable jewel chest get covered by dust. The sun arose above the curtain hook.

生怕離懷別苦，多少事、欲說還休。
sheng1 pa4 li2, hui2 bie2 ku3, duo2 shao3 shi4, yu4 shuo1 huan2 xiu1
Arose the departing fear, filled with the farewell bitterness. How many matters, wanted to say, but hesitated at the time of uttering

新來瘦，非干病酒，不是悲秋。
xin1 lai2 shou4, fei1 gan1 bing4 jiu3, bu2 shi4 bei1 qiu1
Lately, I got thinned. This is nothing to do with excess drinking, and it had nothing to do with the lament for Autumn either.

休休！
Xiu1 xiu1
Let it go away, go away.

這回去也，千萬遍陽關 (note 1)，也則難留。
zhe4 hui2 qu4 ye3, qian1 wan4 bian4 yang2 guang1, ye3 ze2 nan2 liu2
This time when he went away, ten million times of Farewell songs, would still fail to retain him.

念武陵 （note 2) 人遠，煙鎖秦樓。
nian4 wu3 ling2 ren2 yuan3, yan1 suo3 qin2 luo2
Thought of him who was like going to those immortals in Wu Ling peach blossom spring, getting farther and farther; while I was locked in the mist filled family chamber

惟有樓前流水，應念我、終日凝眸。
Wei2 you3 luo2 qian2 liu2 shui3, ying1 nian4 wo3, zhong1 ri4 ning2 mou2
Only the flowing water in front of tower should be aware that I cast everlasting stare all day long.

凝眸處，從今又添，一段新愁。
ning2 mou2 chu4, cong2 jin1 you4 tian1, yi2 duan4 xin1 chou2
The place where I cast my stare upon, from now on, it is going to add on a period of new sorrow.

Note 1. 阳关 Yang2 Guan1
The allusion Yang2 Guan1 comes from 王维 Wang Wei’s poem 渭城曲 Wei4 Cheng2 qu3 (The song of Wei city), in the poem it has a line says西出阳关无故人 xi1 chu1 yang2 guan1 wu2 gu4 ren2 (When you walked out of the west of Yang2 Guan1, you are not going to see any old friends). Thus, the tune of Yang2 Guan1 is used as the farewell song. Yang2 Guan1 was an ancient pass in today’s Gansu 甘肃 province.

Note 2. 武陵 Wu3 Ling1
Wu3 Ling2, this allusion comes from 陶渊明 Tao2 Yuan 2 Ming2’s essay :Tao2 hua1 yuan2 ji4 桃花源记 tao2 hua1 yuan2 ji4 (The record of peach blossom spring).
The essay and poem in it narrate about a fisherman who, one spring during the period 376-397, rowed upriver from his home in Wuling. Later, he discovers a hidden spring full of peach blossom, in which people live in peace and know nothing of the outside world. After a pleasant stay the fisherman goes home. But although he tried to mark the path by which he had entered the valley, when he tries to find it again he cannot. Today’s Wu Ling is in Hunan province. Later, Wu Ling is used as allusion for utopia.

Translated by Shu

Chinese phoenix Feng4 huang2 风凰
Fenghuang (Chinese: 鳳凰; pinyin: fènghuáng) are mythological birds of East Asia that reign over all other birds. The males are called 鳳 Feng and the females 凰 Huang. In modern times, however, such a distinction of gender is often no longer made and the Feng and Huang are blurred into a single feminine entity so that the bird can be paired with the Chinese dragon, which has male connotations.

The Fenghuang is also called the “August Rooster” (Chinese: 鶤雞; pinyin: kūnjī) since it sometimes takes the place of the Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac. In the West, it is commonly referred to as the Chinese phoenix or simply Phoenix. Fenghuang Ancient City is an ancient community in Hunan Province.

However, the Fenghuang have no connection with the phoenix, which derives from Egyptian mythology. Peculiarly, the Egyptian phoenix may also in part reference a prehistoric bird, the Bennu Heron. Unlike the Fenghuang, which is a chimera not very much like any one extant bird, the Egyptian phoenix is most often considered similar to a heron or eagle.

Appearance
A common depiction was of it attacking snakes with its talons and its wings spread. According to scripture Erya – chapter 17 Shiniao, Fenghuang is said to be made up of the beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the forehead of a fowl, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the back of a tortoise, the hindquarters of a stag and the tail of a fish. Today, however, it is often described as a composite of many birds including the head of a golden pheasant, the body of a mandarin duck, the tail of a peacock, the legs of a crane, the mouth of a parrot, and the wings of a swallow.

Its body symbolizes the six celestial bodies. The head is the sky, the eyes are the sun, the back is the moon, the wings are the wind, the feet are the earth, and the tail is the planets. Its feathers contain the five fundamental colors: black, white, red, blue and yellow. It is also sometimes depicted as having three legs. It is believed that phoenix only appear in areas or places that are blessed with utmost peace and prosperity or happiness.

Chinese traditions cites it as living atop the Kunlun Mountains in northern China.

Meaning
The Fenghuang has very positive connotations. It is a symbol of high virtue and grace. The Fenghuang also symbolizes the union of yin and yang. Shan Hai Jing – chapter 1 Nanshan jing records each part of Fenghuang’s body symbolizes a word, the head represents virtue (德), the wing represents duty (義), the back represents propriety (禮), the abdomen says belief (信) and the chest represents mercy (仁).

In ancient and modern Chinese culture, they can often be found in the decorations for weddings or royalty, along with dragons. This is because the Chinese considered the dragon and phoenix symbolic of blissful relations between husband and wife, another common yin and yang metaphor.

In some traditions it appears in good times but hides during times of trouble, while in other traditions it appeared only to mark the beginning of a new era. In China and Japan it was a symbol of the imperial house, and it represented “fire, the sun, justice, obedience, and fidelity”.

See complete article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenghuang

Taiwan TV drama -Yu4 huo3 feng4 huang2 浴火风凰 phoenix bathing fire

The poet information – Li Qing Zhao
Li Qingzhao 李清照; pseudonym Yi’an Jushi (易安居士 “Yi’an Householder”),) (1084–c. 1151) was a Chinese writer and poet of the Song Dynasty, regarded by many as the premier female poet in the Chinese language.
She was born (c. 1083 CE) in Licheng into a family of officials and scholars; her father was a friend of Su Shi. Unlike other girls born in noble families, Li was outgoing and knowledgeable.

Before she got married, her poetry was already well known within elite circles. In 1101 she married Zhao Mingcheng, with whom she shared interests in art collection and epigraphy. They lived in present-day Shandong. After he started his official career, her husband was often absent. This inspired some of the love poems that she wrote. Both she and her husband collected many books. Her husband and she shared a love of poetry and often wrote poems for each other. They also wrote about bronze artifacts of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The northern Song capital of Kaifeng fell in 1126 to the Jurchens. Fighting took place in Shandong and their house was burned. The couple brought many of their possessions when they fled to Nanjing, where they lived for a year. Zhao died in 1129 en route to an official post. The death of her husband was a cruel stroke from which she never recovered. It was then up to Li to keep safe what was left of their collection. Li described her married life and the turmoil of her flight in an Afterword to her husband’s posthumously published work, Jin shi lu. Her earlier poetry portrays her carefree days as a woman of high society, and is marked by its elegance.

Li subsequently settled in Hangzhou, where the Song government was now established. She continued writing poetry and published the Jin shi lu. According to some contemporary accounts, she was briefly married to a man named Zhang Ruzhou (張汝舟) who treated her badly, and she divorced him within months. She survived the criticism of her marriage.

Only around a hundred of her poems are known to survive, mostly in the ci form and tracing her varying fortunes in life. Also a few poems in the shi form have survived, the Afterword and a study of the ci form of poetry. She is credited with the first detailed critique of the metrics of Chinese poetry. She was regarded as a master of wanyue pai “the delicate restraint”.
This article comes from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Qingzhao

A video introduction about Li Qing Zhao