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Ts’ui T’u (fl. 900) was born along the Fuchiang River south of Hangchou but spent most of his life far from home. He witnessed the end of the T’ang dynasty and the rise of a series of independent states along the Yangtze, whose middle reaches were once controlled by the state of Ch’u, and where he now finds himself. In Chuangtzu: 2 a man wakes up from a butterfly dream to wonder if he isn’t a butterfly dreaming he’s a man. Here, the poet hears the cuckoo’s cry, pu-ju kuei-ch’u (“better go home”), in the middle of the night. But why go home to a state where men compete over the meaningless mists of Lake Wuhu (aka Taihu) west of Suchou?

A Traveler’s Thoughts on a Spring Evening

TS’UI T’U

Flowing water and falling petals have no pity

I see the East Wind off past the walls of Ch’u

a butterfly dreams ten thousand miles from home

a cuckoo perches beneath the midnight moon

no letters from home for more than a year

the gray at my temples all due to spring

I could go home if I wanted but don’t

why fight over the mists of Wuhu