Li Bai: Read Books Inside the Hanlin Academy

 

[updated October 2022]

 

Read Books Inside the Hanlin Academy, Talk of My Heart-Mind, Collect the Worthy Volumes of Mine For Fellow Students and Intellectuals

 

翰 林 读 书 言 怀 呈 集 贤 院 诸 学 士
晨 趋 紫 禁 中
夕 待 金 门 诏。
观 书 散 遗 帙
探 古 穷 至 妙。
片 言 苟 会 心
掩 卷 忽 而 笑。
青 蝇 易 相 点
白 雪 难 同 调。
本 是 疏 散 人
屡 贻 褊 促 诮。
云 天 属 清 朗
林 壑 忆 游 眺。
或 时 清 风 来
闲 倚 栏 下 啸。
严 光 桐 庐 溪
谢 客 临 海 峤。
功 成 谢 人 君
从 此 一 投 钓。
Han Lin Du Shu Yan Huai Cheng Ji Xian Yuan Zhu Xue Shi

Chen qu zi jin zhong
Xi dai jin men zhao.
Guan shu san yi zhi
Tan gu qiong zhi miao.

Pian yan gou hui xin
Yan juan hu er xiao.
Qing ying yi xiang dian
Bai xue nan tong diao.

Ben shi shu san ren
Lu yi bian cu qiao.
Yun tian shu qing lang
Lin he yi you tiao.

Huo shi qing feng lai
Xian yi lan xia xiao.
Yan guang tong lu xi
Xie ke lin hai jiao.
Gong cheng xie ren jun
Cong ci yi tou diao.

 

Read Books Inside the Hanlin Academy, Talk of My Heart-Mind, Collect the Worthy Volumes of Mine For Fellow Students and Intellectuals

Morning, hasten to the center of imperial rear areas
At sunset, await for Jinmen imperial edicts.
Looking through falling apart books without cloth book covers
Explore and investigate to the end of the brilliant and wondrous mystery.

Finding just fragments and words makes a meeting of the mind-hearts
Overlook some hidden scrolls, the errors cause smiles and laughter.
Black houseflies easily stand out
In springtime, mixed snow no longer white.

I am unique and original, others disorganized and easily broken
Repeatedly received as a gift, narrow and hurried blame.
Overcast skies pure and bright
Forests, recall traveling to places with a view into the distance.

Season when the pure winds arrive
Unoccupied, lean on a railing below sounds of nature.
Yanzi Ling in a landscape, small stream at Tonglu
Xie Ke near Lin Hai mountain peaks.
Say farewell to the emperor after achieving some success
From here, I will throw one fishing line into the water.

 

Notes:

Hanlin Academy:  A group of elite scholars which was organized during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Their main activities included interpreting the Chinese Classics for the emperor and for the imperial exams used to qualify government officials.

Yanzi Ling (ca. 578-500 BC) Prime minister in the state of Qi during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

Tonglu: Located in Zhejiang Province near the city of Hangzhou.

Lin Hai: Located in Zhejiang Province near the Lin River.

 

Commentary:

The “brilliant and wondrous mystery” was described in Chapter One of the Dao De Jing by Laozi.  It can be found on this website under the category “Artistic and Philosophical Foundations”.