Creative background
In the 15th year of Kaiyuan (727 AD) of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the 27-year-old author came to Anlu "to go to the country with his sword and to leave his relatives and travel far away". "Preface to the Spring Night Banquet from My Di's Peach Garden" was written in Anlu around AD 733 (the 21st year of Kaiyuan). The author and his cousins ??had a banquet on a Spring Night, composed poems, and wrote this preface for it.
Translation:
Heaven and earth are the guest houses of all things, and time is the passer-by from the past to the present. The difference between life and death is like the difference between dreaming and waking. It changes one after another and cannot be investigated. How much joy can be obtained? It makes sense for the ancients to hold torches and play at night. Moreover, the mild spring attracts us with beautiful scenery, and nature shows us beautiful scenery. Gather together in the garden with fragrant peach blossoms and talk about the happy past between brothers. My younger brothers are handsome and outstanding, and all of them are as talented as Xie Huilian, but I am ashamed to be inferior to Xie Lingyun when I write poems and chants. The appreciation of pure and elegant things never stopped, and the eloquent talk turned to pure and elegant language. A banquet was held to sit and enjoy the famous flowers, quickly passing the wine glasses and getting drunk in the moonlight. Without good poetry, how can we express our elegant feelings? If someone fails to compose a poem, he will follow the precedent of Shi Chong who composed poems at a banquet in Jingu Garden. Anyone who fails to compose a poem will be fined with three glasses of wine.
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