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Tu Mu (803–852) summarizes the sights of a journey through a region the Chinese call Chiangnan (South of the Yangtze)—to which he was rusticated from 838 to 842. Not only does this region south of the river’s lower reaches enjoy a milder climate and more rainfall than North China, it was also more hospitable to mercantile activities and Buddhism during a series of southern dynasties (420–589). The Yangtze remains China’s greatest highway, and from its river towns and hillside hamlets wineshops and inns advertised their presence with pennants suspended from bamboo poles. Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty (502–556) was said to have built nearly 500 temples in this region, and Buddhist architecture was as much a part of the landscape as bamboo and lotuses. Thus, as he describes the sights and sounds, Tu Mu also suggests the reasons for the decline in dynastic fortunes: indulgence in worldly passions and the emptying of imperial coffers to support the otherworldly way of life of Buddhist monasteries. Pagodas usually contained the ashes and relics of eminent monks.

Chiangnan Spring

TU MU

A thousand miles of oriole songs and red among the green

of wine flags flapping along the shore and in the hills

four hundred and eighty temples built by the Southern Court

and how many pagodas in the land of mist and rain