Return to the Field (rhapsody)

"Return to the Field" (歸田賦) is a Chinese rhapsody written in the "fu" style by Zhang Heng (AD 78–139), an official, inventor, mathematician, and astronomer of the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) in China.

Background

"Return to the Field" was written as Zhang rejoicefully went into retirement in 138, after retiring from the corrupted politics of the capital Luoyang and then serving a post as administrator over Hejian, Hebei. [Crespigny, 1050.] [Neinhauser et al., 212.] His poem reflected the life he wished to lead in retirement while emphasizing markedly Daoist ideas over his Confucian background.Liu, 54.] Liu Wu-chi writes that by combining Daoist ideas with Confucian ones, Zhang's poem "heralded the metaphysical verse and nature poetry of the later centuries." In the rhapsody, Zhang also explicitly mentions the sage of Daoism, Laozi (fl. 6th century BC), as well as Confucius (6th century BC), the Duke of Zhou (fl. 11th century BC), and the Three Sovereigns.

Rhapsody selection

A section about spring in Zhang Heng's rhapsody, translated in Liu Wu-chi's book "An Introduction to Chinese Literature" (1990), reads as thus:

Notes

References

*de Crespigny, Rafe. (2007). "A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD)". Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. ISBN 9004156054.
*Liu, Wu-chi. (1990). "An Introduction to Chinese Literature". Westport: Greenwood Press of Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313267030.
*Neinhauser, William H., Charles Hartman, Y.W. Ma, and Stephen H. West. (1986). "The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature: Volume 1". Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253329833.