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Li Pai was quite familiar with this road, as it ended near his hometown of Chinglien Village, north of Chengtu in Western Szechuan. Western Szechuan was the ancient state of Shu, and it was also called Tsantsung, after Ts’an Ts’ung, a descendent of the Yellow Emperor, who moved there in the third millennium B.C. and established the hegemony of the Han Chinese. The Tsangtsung Road was built in the third century B.C. by the state of Ch’in, in order to invade Shu. The Chinling Mountains that separated the two states were so rugged that the road often gave way to planks supported by thick pegs driven into the rock cliffs. The “walls of Shu” refer to those of Chengtu, and the “currents of spring” to those of the Min River that formed the city’s moat. Yen Tsun was a famous Taoist fortune-teller who lived in Chengtu in the first century B.C. In the second half of this poem, Li tries to console his friend by suggesting he look for the silver lining in his rustication and accept his fate, however unjust; even Chengtu’s greatest fortune-teller couldn’t fathom the whims of those responsible for his friend’s banishment.

Seeing Off a Friend Leaving for Shu

LI PAI

You’ve heard of the Tsantsung Road

how rugged it is and hard to travel

mountains rise before your face

and clouds appear beside your horse

but the planks of Ch’in are shrouded by fragrant trees

and the walls of Shu are circled by the currents of spring

ups and downs are surely fixed

you don’t need to ask Yen Tsun