裂素榮光發，舒華瑞色敷。恆將配堯德，垂慶代河圖。
NOTE: Written in Ch’ang-an in 790. This is Liu’s earliest extant poem. He was only eighteen, but it already shows his admiration for the ways of China’s early sage kings—an admiration that endured throughout his career as an offical and his subsequent exiles. The painting of the imperial court he describes was used as the subject of the civil service exam that year. The emperor was considered the Son of Heaven, and the image of a dragon playing with the sun was a common motif on royal robes. Among the sage rulers the Chinese revered were Emperor Yao 堯 (ca. 2350 BC) and Fu Hsi 伏羲 (ca. 2850 BC). Fu Hsi was once given by the Dragon King of the Yellow River a set of diagrams on the basis of which he composed the trigrams that made up the earliest version of the Book of Changes 易經. As a result of the enmity borne Liu’s father by the prime minister, Tou Shen, Liu failed the examination the previous year, and he failed this year too, and the next year, and the next. Finally, on his fifth attempt, when the prime minister himself was exiled, he passed in 793 at the age of twenty-one. His friend Liu Yu-hsi also passed that year. (1261)
2. THE TURTLE SHELL GAME 龜背戲
The game first appeared in Ch’ang-an in the palace
the sound soon filled the homes of nobles
gold coins falling on jade plates
turtle shells polished like an autumn sky
sacred symbols marking the eight directions
up and down and six different ways
someone spins a magical device
stars fly and clouds break apart
then come together again
who can tell what exists and what doesn’t
suddenly things scatter and disappear
then in a flash it’s all like before
everything of course rises and falls
but a single move here decides victory or defeat
old-style chess is no longer in vogue
whims of the past are disdained by the times
if more than luck lights its occult lines
may it grant my lord a thousand years
but serving as an altarpiece isn’t for me
the idle rich indulge in all sorts of things
長安新技出宮掖，喧喧初徧王侯宅。玉盤滴瀝黃金淺，皎如文龜麗秋天。
八方定位開神卦，六甲離離齊上下。投變轉動玄機卑，星流霞破相參差。
四分五裂勢未已，出無入有誰能知。乍驚散漫無處所，須臾羅列已如故。
徒言萬事有盈虛，終朝一擲知勝負。修門象棋不復貴，魏宮粧奩世所棄。
豈如瑞質耀奇文，願持千歲壽吾君。廟堂巾笥非余慕，錢刀兒女徒紛紛。
NOTE: Written in Ch’ang-an shortly before 800 while Liu was still in his twenties. Serving at court, Liu came into contact with the goings-on among the excessively rich and idle. Here he describes a new board game that had become fashionable. Judging from the description, the lines on the turtle shell formed the “board,” and elements of chance were involved but also automatic writing, as in the modern Ouija board. It was about this time that such writing first appeared among Taoists. In his self-titled book (17.11), the Taoist sage Chuang-tzu turns down an offer to be a minister at court and compares such an opportunity to the choice given a turtle of having its shell used in the ceremonies of the king or of continuing to wag its tail in the mud. The turtle, of course, was known for its long life. (1248)
I. THE JUNK BUG 蝜蝂傳
Junk bugs are insects that like to carry things. Whenever they encounter something, they grab it, then lift it with their heads onto their backs. No matter how heavy or troublesome it might be, they don’t quit. Because their backs are rough, whatever they pile on top doesn’t fall off. When they finally collapse and can’t get up, if someone takes pity on them and removes their burden, as soon as they can move, they pick it up again and continue on as before. They’re also fond of climbing heights and do so with all their might until they fall to their deaths.
Likewise, there are people today so greedy they don’t let anything of value escape without adding it to their possessions. They don’t consider how burdensome it might be, only that they might fail to acquire it. But the moment they’re careless and trip, they suffer the misfortune of dismissal or banishment. And yet, as long as they can get back up, they continue on unrepentant. Every day they wonder how to improve their position or how to increase their salary, and their greed grows to the point where they approach ruin. Even if they should consider how those who came before them have perished, they don’t stop. Although they appear great, and we call them “men,” they possess the intelligence of insects. This is truly sad.
蝜蝂者，善負小蟲也。行遇物，輒持取，卬其首負之。背愈重，雖困劇不止也。其背甚澀，物積固不散。卒躓仆不能起，人或憐之，為去其負，苟能行， 又持取如故。又好上高，極其力不已，至墜地死。
今世之嗜取者，遇貨不避，以厚其室。不知為己累也，唯恐其不積。及其怠而躓也，黜棄之，遷徙之，亦以病矣。苟能起，又不艾。日思高其位，大其祿，而貪取滋甚，以近於危墜。觀前之死亡，不知戒。雖其形魁然大者，其名人也，而智則小蟲也。亦足哀夫。
NOTE: Although this reflects Liu’s impression of people he met in Ch’ang-an, this was most likely written while he was himself banished and living in Yungchou. This insect is usually identified as the larval stage of the green lacewing, or ant lion, which piles the bodies of ants it has killed on its back for camouflage. Liu has broadened its habits a bit here to serve the purposes of allegory. (483)
3. WEI TAO-AN 韋道安
Tao-an was a Confucian scholar
equally skilled with a bow or sword
traveling through the Taihang Mountains at twenty
one evening he heard someone cry
spurring his horse to investigate
he found an old man in a disheveled state
“I was a county official,” he said
“but I was demoted and returning to Ch’ang-an
when suddenly bandits attacked me
they didn’t leave me a thing
I don’t mind losing my possessions
they took my daughters too
before I knew it they were gone
who knows if my girls are dead or alive
I may as well end this life
how can I face another day”
道安本儒士，頗擅弓劍名。二十遊太行，暮聞號哭聲