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Lu Tung-pin (fl. 870) was from Yunglo in Shansi province. After failing to pass the civil service exam, he met Chung-li Ch’uan (aka Han Chung-li) at a wineshop in Ch’ang-an, got drunk, realized the impermanence of human existence, and joined Chung-li in leading a group of Taoists who became known as the Eight Immortals. In some texts, such as Hu Tzu’s Tiaohsi yuyin tsunghua (pub. 1148), this poem is entitled “In Reply to Chung Juo-weng,” and the author is listed as “a herdboy.” Chung (fl. 1105) was an otherwise unremarkable scholar from Kiangsi province who received an appointment to the Palace Library in Kaifeng as the result of a recommendation and was subsequently dismissed for issuing false reports of military successes. Although Chung was clearly in need of the advice offered by this poem, I have, instead, gone along with the Chuantangshih, which attributes the poem to Lu Tung-pin and entitles it “Herdboy.” In either case, it presents the Taoist vision of the well-lived life of a person at peace with the world and in harmony with its changes. In South China, farmers wove their raincoats from the bark of the coir palm (Trachycarpus excelsa). In North China, where Lu lived, they used a coat of woven reeds in summer and one of animal skins in winter.

Herdboy

LU TUNG-PIN

Across the countryside grass spreads for miles

I blow a few notes on the evening wind

back home I eat after the sun sets

and lie in the moonlight still wearing my raincoat