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Ch’ao Yueh-chih (1059–1129) was from Chuyeh in Shantung province and served as a member of the Hanlin Academy in Kaifeng, where he was assigned the task of recording imperial pronouncements during the emperor’s morning meeting with his officials, which apparently inspired this poem. Ch’ao was also known for his skill as a painter, and here he portrays Emperor Hsuan-tsung (685–762), the third son of Emperor Jui-tsung (662–716), indulging in a game similar to soccer that employed a leather ball stuffed with feathers—while the country went to ruin. At the beginning of Hsuan-tsung’s reign his chief ministers, Chang Chiu-ling and Han Hsiu, submitted memorials criticizing his lack of attention to governmental affairs. But both were eventually forced to resign or retire and thereafter the emperor seldom received frank advice, much less criticism, during his dawn audience. Ch’ao could only have written this poem about an emperor of a previous dynasty, but his reference is clearly to Emperor Hui-tsung (r. 1101–1126), whose passion for the arts and whose inattention to governmental affairs are blamed for the loss of North China to the Khitans and for the flight of the court from Kaifeng to Hangchou, where his successors established the Southern Sung dynasty (1127–1279).

On a Painting of Playing Football

CH’AO YUEH-CHIH

A thousand doors and windows open in the palace

the Third Son is drunk and gives the ball a kick

Chiu-ling is too old and Han Hsiu is dead

no longer are memorials submitted in the morning