128

Hsieh Fang-te (1226–1289) was from Yiyang in Kiangsi province. Prior to his imprisonment in Beijing he served in several posts in the Southern Sung capital of Hangchou, which is still famous for its silk brocade. During this period, taxes were paid in lengths of silk, and each household had a quota to meet and someone assigned to fill it. To the Chinese, the cuckoo’s cry sounds like the phrase pu-ju kuei-ch’u (“better go home”), and during spring it often cries all night. In an effort to guard against thieves and fires, Chinese in urban areas divided the night into five two-hour watches. Here, the servant in charge of the household silk quota has been kept awake by the cuckoo’s cry and gets up after midnight to feed the silkworms, which were kept on wicker trays in a warm part of the house and fed a diet of mulberry leaves until they spun themselves into their cocoons. But not only does this silkmaid have a hard life, so does her mistress, who has to stay up all night entertaining others. This poem, as with verse 113, was not part of Liu K’o-chuang’s original anthology and was probably added to include something from one of the major writers of the Sung dynasty’s final years.

Lament of the Silkmaid

HSIEH FANG-TE

Until the fourth watch the cuckoo cries

she gets up to see if the silkworms have leaves

surprised at the moon between rooftops and willows

and her mistress not back from the party