Six Men from the Mu Family
Yi Shi Cao Ting
In deep forest, a thatched hut is constructed.
New bamboos quickly grow up, stream waters are running in the ditches.
Stringed instrument and books are my companion, wood and stone I live with.
Fame seekers are here belittled, an old man is fishing in a pond.
His poems, like running streams from Yulong Snow Mountains, are crystal clear, elegant , easy and free, but contain profound meanings.
Ben Zeng (1587-1646)
Ben Zeng, styled Changqing, was known by his literary name Huayue or Shengbai. He was hard-working and read many books. He was able to compose poems in his childhood. He began his career in the 26th year of Emperor Zhu Yijun of the Ming Dynasty. He promoted education and constructed library in the county office compound. In 1642, Mu Zeng, at the age of 36, retired to Zhishan Mountain of western Yulong Snow Mountains where he built a structure named Jietuolin, a villa-shaped building, in which a book-printing room was set up for publishing past Mus’ verses and articles. He had close contacts with renown literates both from the province and central China. Xu Xiake, Zhou Yuequan and Monk Dan Dan separately visited Lijiang. He took them as his teachers and made literate friends with them. He left behind 1,000-odd poems and articles which were recorded in such books as Selected Works of Yunnan Poets, Selected Poems of Yunnan Celebrities, Anecdote in the Mountains, Fan Shan Yun Yin Mo, Anthology of Verses and Verses of Guang Bi Lou, among which Selected Works of Yunnan Poets mainly recoded some reading notes and anecdotes and miscellaneous essays. Four Vaults of Classical Book mentioned that book. In addition, Mu Zeng wrote 30-odd classical Chinese poems and 20-odd poetic essays. He is the first Naxi poet writing poetic songs and poetic essays. His literary works covered wider fields and made breakthrough achievements for the development of Naxi literature.
Mu Jing (1672-1678)
The poem depicts awesome landscape of Lijiang as well as open and progressive ideas of the Mu family. It explicitly explains that Lijiang is part of border area surrounded by high mountains and isolated by Jinsha River (upper reaches of Yangtze River). Such conditions impeded Lijiang’s development and prosperity. Jinsha River runs through mountains and flows to the ocean. Yulong Snow Mountain ranges are covered by aged snow piercing into the sky. Only by standing at a high place, can a man see landscape afar. The author saw the world in Lijiang by means of observing mountains and rivers and explored the mental imagination. The poem animatedly reflected Naxi people’s ethnic character, feelings, spirit and their aesthetic taste.
Mu Gong (1494-1553)
Mu Gong, was known by his literary name Xueshan, Wansong and Liu Xue Zhu Ren. He is Mu Tai’s grandson. Mu, in his childhood, was fond of learning and open-minded. He was acquainted with famed literates, namely Zhang Zhichun, Zhang Han, Zhang Zesuo, Li Yuanyang and Jia Tiren, and established profound relationships with them. Mu wrote letters to Yang Shen, a famous banished literate of the Ming Dynasty, to console him and sent friends to Kunming with his poems. Zhang Zhichun wrote the preface for Mu’s poetry anthology The Voice of The Snow Mountains (hand-copied book at Lijiang Library) saying , “Snow mountains are found in Lijiang. It is Mu who started to compose real poems in Lijiang.”
Source: ljgc.gov.cn
Editor: Feng Hui
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