"Eight Arrivals"

Tang Dynasty: Li Ye

From near to far, from east to west, from deep to shallow clear streams.

The highest to the bright sun and the moon, the closest relatives to the distant husband and wife.

Translation:

The nearest and farthest are east and west, and the deepest and shallowest is Qingxi.

The highest and brightest things are the sun and the moon, and the closest and farthest things are the husband and wife.

Extended information:

Writing background:

This poem is full of life insights and should be the work of Li Ye (Li Jilan) after he became an adult. After Li Ye came of age, she became a female Taoist priest and had some interactions with men. It is said that he later fell in love with a monk and wrote this poem.

This poem ranges from near and far, east and west, to deep and shallow clear streams, to the bright sun and moon, to close relatives and distant couples, expressing the helplessness and decadence of life. There are twenty-four characters in the whole poem, but it is a journey of life from prosperity to decline, with flowers blooming and falling, revealing the truth of life. The first sentence, "near and far things", writes a simple and true truth.

East and west are two relative directions. Every place on the earth has these two directions except the North and South Pole. If two objects are not running north-south, they must be east-west. Therefore, when "things" are said to be near, the interval can be zero, which means "nearest".

If two objects in the east-west direction are in opposite directions, or even infinitely far away, they are still nothing more than one east and one west. It can be seen that "thing" is far away, or even "far away". The unity of "nearest and farthest" in "east and west" is common sense, but it has profound dialectics.

Li Ye, courtesy name Jilan, was born in Wucheng (now Wuxing, Zhejiang). She was later a female Taoist priest and a famous female poet in the poetry world of the Mid-Tang Dynasty. In his later years, he was called into the palace. In 784 AD, because he had written a poem to rebel against General Zhu Si, Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty ordered him to be killed with random sticks.