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Yang P’u (921–1003) was from Chengchou in Honan province and spent a good deal of his life in the countryside near the Yellow River, where he was known for riding everywhere on his ox. Trying to avoid the conflicts of the Five Dynasties Period (907–960), he lived as a recluse for several years on Sungshan. But he was finally called out of seclusion at the beginning of the Sung dynasty, and he served briefly as an official in the capital of Kaifeng. According to an ancient Chinese folktale, the Emperor of Heaven had a daughter who wove heavenly cloth with her golden loom. Realizing she was lonely, he arranged for her to marry a herdboy. But after they were married she forgot all about weaving. This made the emperor so angry he banished the lovers to different shores of the Milky Way and only allowed them to meet one night a year, on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month. But instead of making love this night, the Herdboy asks his wife to show the world how to weave celestial cloth. Until modern times, it was customary for women to make offerings to the Weaving Maid on this night in exchange for her blessings on their own handiwork. In contrasting the simple generosity of the celestial couple with the wily ways of the world, the poet reflects his own view of the times in which he lived.

The Seventh Night

YANG P’U

I’ve never understood the Herdboy’s thoughts

why he asks the Weaving Maid to work her golden loom

every year offering her skill to the world

unaware the world has enough skills already