Ye Shaoweng

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ye.

Ye Shaoweng (Chinese: 葉紹翁; Wade–Giles: Yeh Shao-weng; fl. 1200–1250) was a Southern Song dynasty Chinese poet from Longquan, in modern Lishui, Zhejiang province.[1] He belonged to the Jianghu (Rivers and Lakes) School of poets, known for its unadorned style of poetry.[1] He was an academician serving in the imperial archives in the capital Hangzhou,[1] and authored a history on the reigns of the first four emperors of the Southern Song entitled Sichao Jianwen Lu (四朝見聞錄), covering the period of 1127–1224. He was a friend of the Neo-Confucian scholar Chen Dexiu.[2] Little else is known about his life.[1]

Poetry

Ye Shaoweng's most famous poem is Youyuan Buzhi (Visiting a Private Garden without Success):

遊園不值       Visiting a Private Garden without Success
應憐屐齒印蒼苔   It must be because he hates clogs on his moss
十扣柴扉久不開   I knock ten times still his gate stayed closed
春色滿園關不住   but spring can't be kept locked in a garden
一支紅杏出牆來   a branch of red blossoms reached past the wall[1]

The last couplet is often reused in later works, its meaning recast as a sexual innuendo.[3] The African-American author Richard Wright wrote two haikus which bear close resemblance to Ye's poem.[4]

References

Bibliography

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