Wang Heqing
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Wang Heqing 王和卿 (c. 1260), a writer of Chinese Sanqu poetry, was a native of Daming in Hebei Province. Other than his birthplace, which is noted in Zheng Sicheng’s Record of Ghosts, nothing of certainty can be said of his life. The Ming period Chuo Genglu 輟耕錄, describes Wang as a friend of Guan Hanqing 關漢卿 (c. 1300) in Tadu, modern Beijing. It is also noted that Wang's lyric on the giant butterfly in the Beijing area was the beginning of his popularity as a writer in the 1260s. Of his sanqu lyrics, twenty-one short lyrics survive with one suite and fragments.
EXPRESSING FEELINGS
Taking the her letter between my fingers;
Under the lamp
I stare and stare at it.
Two or three lines, somewhat cursive,
Scorch my insides.
I half tear it up,
Half burn it.
EXPRESSING FEELINGS
Love fused the marrow of our bones,
Now hard to cast it off.
The sickness fills the body;
How to heal it.
Longing- on what day will we make love?
You and I,
It is the same cure for both of us:
To meet.
SMALL SHAGGY DOG
Ugly like a mule,
Small like a pig.
In the Classic of the World’s Wonders,
Nowhereare you seen.
Over all your body-- shag.
I say you’re a spiritual creature,
Snapping at peoples’ threatening brooms.
SONG OF A GIANT BUTTERFLY
The cicada broke the butterfly dream;
The two wings mounted the east wind.
Three hundred famous gardens
And this one took to the air.
Must have been the romantic type!
She mocked the honey seeking honey bees;
Lightly aloft she winged.
She fanned the flower seller across the east bridge.
EXPRESSING FEELINGS
After parting her golden threaded clothes grew loose.
Her powder and her rouge
Could only cover her fading complexion.
Only when her sleeve came down
Did you know she wept.
She longed for another tryst;
As she dried her tears they flowed forth again.
[edit] REFERENCES
Hu Qiaomu ed., The Great Encyclopedia of China, Chinese Literature, vol. 2, Bejing-Shanghai, 1986, pp. 886-887.
Lu Weifen ed., Complete Yuan Period Sanqu Lyrics, Liaoning, 2000, vol. 1, pp. 43-55.
Ma Liangchun and Li Futian ed., The Great Encyclopedia of Chinese Literature, Tianlu, 1991, vol. 2, p.636.
Carpenter, Bruce E. 'Chinese San-ch’ü Poetry of the Mongol Era: I', Tezukayama Daigaku kiyo (Journal of Tezukayama University), Nara, Japan, no. 22, p. 32.
