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山不在高，有仙则名。水不在深，有龙则灵。斯是陋室，惟吾德馨。苔痕上阶绿，草色入帘青。谈笑有鸿儒，往来无白丁。可以调素琴，阅金经。无丝竹之乱耳，无案牍之劳形。南阳诸葛庐，西蜀子云亭。孔子云，何陋之有？
An Eulogium on a Humble Cell
A mount needs not be high; it becomes noted when on it fairies dwell.
A body of water needs not be deep; it would be ensouled, if a dragon makes it its resting whereabouts.
This hut of mine is a humble one, but I make it virtuously fragrant in repute.
The green moss creeping on the stepping stones and the verdure in the courtyard peeing through the screen do tell the presence of spring.
Here could be heard the table-talks and laughters of renowned scholars, but the rough and gross come not hither their wares to sell.
Here plain table-heptachord could be plucked and golden classics read the worldly cares to quell.
But there are without riotous strings and pipes to confuse the ears, and tedious official documents to ring quietude's knell.
Zhuge's recluse cottage at Nanyang and Yang Xiong's hermit arbour in West Shu, — according to Confucius, wherefore could either one of them be branded as a humble cell?
Tr. August 17, 1980
(孙大雨 译)
Inscription (1) For My Shabby Hut
Liu Yuxi
Mountains need not always be high,
They're famed if therein fairies abide.
Waters need not always be deep,
They'e hallowed where dragons are spied.
This is a simple, mean abode,
Only my virtue lends it fragrance.
Moss smears a fringe of green upon
The stone steps forming the terrace;
And peering through the screen, there throbs
The emerald of the lush grass.
Great scholars drop in casually,
And talk and laugh in abandoned ways;
While in this cordial company
Nonentities have ne'er a place.
The ancient zither we might play,
Or golden-lettered scriptures (2) peruse.
No concert bands our ears confuse,
And no official files await
Our tackling—to excruciate.
To Zhuge's cottage at Nanyang(3),
Or Ziyun's pavilion in
Sichuan(4), mine may well be compared.
So, as Confucius once had said,
"How could it be considered mean?"(5)
Notes
(1)The Chinese character "ming" originally means an inscription on a metal slab or an engraving on a sacrificial utensil. Later it became the name of a particular literary genre.
(2)Some rare Buddhist Scriptures were written with gold powder mixed with gelatin on dark surfaces.
(3)One of the best known great statesmen and military geniuses in Chinese history, Zhuge Liang (A.D.181-234), helped Liu Bei (A.D. 161-223) found one of the Three Kingdoms — the Shu Kingdom at the end of the Han Dynasty. Before he was persistently sought out and made prime minister by Liu Bei, he had lived in retirement in a simple cottage in Nanyang, now west of Xiangyang, Hubei Province.
(4)Ziyun is another name of Yang Xiong (53 B.C.-A.D.18), a great scholar of the West Han Dynasty, for a long time he had confined himself to his simple lodgings in Chengdu, Sichuan, writing an erudite book.
(5)The quotation is from The Analects of Confucius. Once when Confucius became unpopular and slighted, he said he would go and settle down in some far-away minority region. Someone suggested that the place would be too shabby and mean to live in, Confucius replied: "When inhabited by a (righteous) gentleman, how could it be considered mean?"
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