By Phyllis Koh Xing Yi, U1630492E

Peace is away from me,

As I hear the rattling sounds of the bamboo tree,

Where thou is my master,

Whose mind has fled since the grandson of Sima Yi[1],

 

Yellow and red[2] are of the table,

Since the fall of my master’s family rubble,

Clear waters splatter over the wooden chair,

Who knows if that is the wine or my master’s despair,

 

Ah ha! There he is,

By the grove I saw my master,

With millet grains down his mouth, I shudder[3],

One, two, three, four, five, six and seven of them, that is the number!

I so long for the falling seven behind the tree,

To take this world out of its trouble,

 

My nose itches now and then,

By the garden berries and the many wines they so drank,

Peace is far from thee,

When will my master return to me?

 

– Tian Yi, Henan, Early Jin Dynasty China

(This poem was written by a close male-servant of Ruan Ji, who was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. Due to the fall of the Han Dynasty and tulmult of the Three Kingdoms period, the seven scholars withdrew from the public sphere and highly indulged in their own pleasures during the rise of the Jin Dynasty)

 

[1] The grandson of Sima Yi is Sima Yan, who was the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty after the Three Kingdoms period.

[2] Yellow refers to sulphur and red refers to red clay. Both of which are part of the “Cold-Food Powder”.

[3] Millet grain was highly consumed during this particular period.