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Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM Jiucheng Palace 325 realized that he was essentially wrong in his support of Fang Guan; he saw himself as the principled minister who risked all to speak the truth. In this context Du Fu asked for and was granted permission to visit his family in Fuzhou, several hundred miles from Fengxiang. According to the original note, this poem was composed in Binzhou, after Du Fu had gone about one-third of the way on foot (and no doubt realized how difficult it would have been to make the entire journey on foot). Since horses had all been requisitioned for military use, Du Fu wrote the poem to General Li Siye, asking to borrow a horse. 5. 22 Jiucheng Palace1 I went into gray-green mountains a hundred leagues, the cliff was broken, like a mortar. This layered palace lies against whirling gusts, 4 looming at the mouth of a hole in the earth. Gods were placed to support its rafters and beams, they bored into azure foliage to open doors and windows. The sunlit southern slopes produce numinous mushrooms; 8 on shadowy north slope rest Oxherd and Dipper Fanning out, tall pines hang inverted, jutting jagged, weird rocks rush. Mournful gibbons give a single cry, 12 and the traveler? s tears gush in woods and bog. Ungoverned indeed? that Sui emperor, constructing this, now fallen and rotting. Had he then not caused his domain to be destroyed, 16 how could it have become the possession of the mighty Tang? Even though there are no recent additions or repairs, they still assign an officer to guard it.
1 Jiucheng Palace, so called because it was built on nine levels on a mountain, was originally the Renshou Palace of the Sui. It was refurbished in the reign of Taizong and served as a summer palace during his reign and that of his successor Gaozong. Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM 326 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 20 ? ? ? ? ?