Fences part the cooking glow,
Neighbors whisper—soft and low.
Crickets chant through hemp's thin shade,
Looms stand naked, silk betrayed.
Taxmen come with midnight feast,
Bragging how their lords increased:
"East carts drowned in autumn mire,
Yet the rods still sing with fire!"
"Save your skin, bend your spine,
New year's tax will taste like mine."
Original Poem
「田家三首 · 其二」
柳宗元
篱落隔烟火，农谈四邻夕。
庭际秋虫鸣，疏麻方寂历。
蚕丝尽输税，机杼空倚壁。
里胥夜经过，鸡黍事筵席。
各言官长峻，文字多督责。
东乡后租期，车毂陷泥泽。
公门少推恕，鞭朴恣狼藉。
努力慎经营，肌肤真可惜。
迎新在此岁，唯恐踵前迹。
Interpretation
This poem constitutes the second of Liu Zongyuan's "Three Poems on Farming Households," composed during his southern exile (circa 805 AD onward). The triptych exposes agrarian hardships under feudal oppression, with this installment focusing on tax extraction's brutality. Witnessing firsthand how peasants were stripped of possessions and subjected to corporal punishment by tax collectors, Liu—now ideologically aligned with populist concerns—crafted these visceral protests against systemic exploitation. The poem's documentary realism marks a pinnacle of Tang dynasty social critique poetry.
First Couplet: "篱落隔烟火，农谈四邻夕。"
Líluò gé yānhuǒ, nóng tán sìlín xī.
Hearth-smoke seeps through wattled fences; neighbors share evening talk of toil and dread.
The bucolic facade—a deceptive calm where "talk of dread" foreshadows impending violence, rendering the rural idyll uncanny.
Second Couplet: "庭际秋虫鸣，疏麻方寂历。"
Tíng jì qiū chóng míng, shū má fāng jìlì.
Autumn insects trill by the courtyard; sparse hemp stands bleak and still.
"Bleak and still" transmutes crops into spectral witnesses, their thinness indicting tax-starved soil. The insects' dirge becomes nature's lament.
Third Couplet: "蚕丝尽输税，机杼空倚壁。"
Cánsī jìn shū shuì, jīzhù kōng yǐ bì.
Silk stores drained for taxes, the loom leans idle against the wall.
The hollow loom—a skeletal metaphor for economic paralysis. Domestic space is violated; women's labor appropriated.
Fourth Couplet: "里胥夜经过，鸡黍事筵席。"
Lǐ xū yè jīngguò, jī shǔ shì yánxí.
Taxmen come by night; peasants serve their scant fowl and millet.
Irony curdles hospitality: the robbed must feed their robbers. "Scant fowl" underscores dignity's last sacrifice.
Fifth Couplet: "各言官长峻，文字多督责。"
Gè yán guān zhǎng jùn, wénzì duō dūzé.
"The magistrate is stern," they plead, waving documents thick with threats.
The collectors' performative sympathy reveals bureaucracy's coercive machinery—papers as weapons.
Sixth Couplet: "东乡后租期，车毂陷泥泽。"
Dōngxiāng hòu zū qī, chē gǔ xiàn ní zé.
"East Village's carts sank in mud—their tax delivery delayed."
Nature's obstruction becomes systemic cruelty's accomplice. The trapped cartwheel symbolizes immobilized lives.
Seventh Couplet: "公门少推恕，鞭朴恣狼藉。"
Gōng mén shǎo tuī shù, biān pǔ zì lángjí.
No mercy at the yamen: lashes rain down, flesh left in mangled heaps.
The visceral climax—bureaucratic violence made corporeal. "Mangled heaps" indicts the state as butcher.
Eighth Couplet: "努力慎经营，肌肤真可惜。"
Nǔlì shèn jīngyíng, jīfū zhēn kěxī.
"Tend your farms carefully," they mock, "precious is your skin after all."
The collectors' sadistic taunt twists Confucian paternalism into a whip's crack.
Ninth Couplet: "迎新在此岁，唯恐踵前迹。"
Yíngxīn zài cǐ suì, wéikǒng zhǒng qián jì.
New Year approaches, yet all fear reliving last year's scars.
Temporal irony eviscerates renewal: the calendar turns, the terror stays. Hope itself becomes a colonial imposition.
Holistic Appreciation
This poem employs plain descriptive techniques to depict a rural evening scene, progressively revealing how peasants were driven to livelihood collapse and mental exhaustion under tax oppression. The first half portrays impoverished peasant households struggling to survive in harsh conditions, while the second half sharply focuses on the tax collection process. Lines like "village officers passing by night" and "government gates show little mercy" use vivid, lifelike details to expose institutional cruelty and power tyranny. With unadorned language laying bare brutal reality, the poem conveys profound emotion and implicit indictment, standing as a masterpiece among Liu Zongyuan's satirical works that reflects his artistic and ideological evolution from "landscape" to "people's livelihood."
Artistic Merits
- Plain Language Rooted in Reality
The poem predominantly uses colloquial expressions and details of folk life, creating intense authenticity. - Progressive Narrative with Rhythmic Flow
Beginning with static village scenery, it transitions to livelihood struggles, then to official oppression—a compact structure with escalating emotional intensity. - Realistic Scenery Bearing Emotional Weight
Concrete images like "sparse hemp," "loom," and "chicken and millet" sketch folk life while carrying emotional resonance. - Profound yet Restrained Emotion
Without direct political criticism, meticulous detailing naturally expresses indictment against unjust governance.
Insights
With acute observation and compassionate spirit, this work documents peasants' fates under oppression, provoking deep reflection. It enlightens us that literature should transcend aesthetic pursuit to become society's moral voice. Liu Zongyuan's writing speaks for the people, exposing injustice while demonstrating scholars' sense of responsibility and critical spirit. This grounded compassion and courage to confront reality make the poem timeless, cementing its status as a treasured legacy in China's realist poetic tradition.
About the Poet
Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元, 773 - 819), a native of Yuncheng in Shanxi province, was a pioneering advocate of the Classical Prose Movement during China's Tang Dynasty. Awarded the prestigious jinshi degree in 793 during the Zhenyuan era, this distinguished scholar-official revolutionized Chinese literature with his groundbreaking essays. His prose works, remarkable for their incisive vigor and crystalline purity, established the canonical model for landscape travel writing that would influence generations. As a poet, Liu mastered a distinctive style of luminous clarity and solitary grandeur, securing his place among the legendary "Eight Great Masters of Tang-Song Prose" - an honor reflecting his enduring impact on Chinese literary history.
