158

Su Shih (1037–1101) wrote this poem in 1073 when he was serving as controller-general of Hangchou, which would not become the capital of the Southern Sung for another fifty years. Hsi-tzu (Western Beauty) was another name for Hsi Shih, a famous beauty of the state of Yueh. Following a disastrous defeat by the state of Wu in 494 B.C., the King of Yueh (r. 496–465 B.C.) gave Hsi Shih to the King of Wu in hopes that she would distract him from state affairs, an assignment in which she succeeded famously. As a result of this poem, some people started calling West Lake “Western Beauty Lake.” According to an account in Lengchi yehhua, “When Tung-p’o [Su Shih’s pen name] was serving in Hangchou, there was not a day he did not visit West Lake.”

Drinking on the Lake As It Clears Then Rains

SU SHIH

The shimmering waves are translucent when it clears

the mist-veiled hills are transcendent when it rains

I think of West Lake as the Beauty of the West

equally lovely in powder or paint