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Fan Ch’eng-ta (1126–1193) was from Suchou in Kiangsu province. He served in a number of posts but is chiefly remembered for his staunch refusal, while serving as ambassador to the Chin Tartars in North China, to betray national interests even when threatened with death. He was also ranked as one of the four greatest poets of the Southern Sung dynasty and was known for his objective, realistic style and his focus on the everyday events of farm life. Eventually, court politics became too much for him, and in 1183 he retired to the countryside just outside Suchou. This is one in a series of sixty poems he wrote not long afterwards entitled “Occasional Poems on the Four Seasons of Farm Life,” a series that served as the model for many later poets. The mulberry trees produced the leaves that fed the silkworms that made the silk that paid the taxes that supported the imperial lifestyle.

A Farm Family

FAN CH’ENG-TA

Weeding fields at sunup twisting hemp at night

village boys and girls all have their chores

even little children too small to plow or weave

learn to plant melons in the shade of mulberry trees