Wei Qingzhi: Poet's Jade Splinters translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

American Poetry Review, The, Nov 1995 by Wei Qingzhi

from Black Box Notes

Roll Call of Ghosts and Doctor Mathematics: Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo are famous for their poetry. But people comment on their poetic diseases. For example, Yang likes to use names of ancient people; we call this the "roll call of ghosts." Luo likes to use numbers in his poetry; people refer to him as "Doctor Mathematics."

from Jade Spring

The Elliptical Method: When Zheng, Gu writes a poem about falling leaves he doesn't mention it directly, yet people can infer the subject matter from his poem:

It's hard for returning ants to find their holes,

easy for birds to see their nests.

The monk is never sick of them covering the porch

but a layman will find one of them too much.

from The Cold Study

The Disease of Unintentional Similarity: When Cheng Shimeng was the governor of Hongzhou he built a meditation room at his residence. He loved this room so much that he went there every day, and he inscribed these two lines on a stone:

No matter how busy, I come here once a day.

I often come at midnight carrying a lantern.

Li Yuangui saw this inscription and laughed, saying "This is a poem about going to the toilet!"

from East Window Notes

Three Ways to Steal: There are three kinds of plagiarism in poetry writing. The clumsiest thief steals the words. Cheng Ju's line "The light of sun and moon is heavenly virtue" is from Fu Changyu's line "The light of sun and moon is transparent." The second kind of plagiarist steals the idea. Consider Shen Chenqi's lines:

The remains of summer flee from a small pond.

Coolness returns to the tips of tall trees first.

Now consider the original lines by Liu Hun:

Ripples arise in the pool.

Autumn comes to tall poplar trees.

The third type of theft doesn't leave much trace. Wang Changlin's lines go:

With two carp in my hand

I watch wild geese fall into distance.

The original lines by Qi Kang are:

My eyes see off migrating cranes.

Holding up my zither, I wave.

from Varieties in a Poetic Garden

Don't Leave Traces and Don't Get Stuck: You must shape a poem like you cut a gem, leaving no trace of your tools. Aim for a bullseye but don't get stuck there. This is what makes poetry so hard. Consider these two lines about willow trees by Li Shangyin:

Before leaves bud, spring starts to move.

Countless weeping willow branches shake the dawn.

The marks of the poet's tools are too obvious here. Here's another example, Shi Manqin's poem about plum blossoms:

You might take it for a peach tree, but it has

no green leaves.

You might take it for an apricot tree, but it has

mossy branches.

This one is so restricted to its subject that it gets stuck.

--Anonymous

Cliches Must Go: A friend came to me with a poem that began "Coldness in November . . . ," so I asked him, Have you noticed how Du Fu uses the names of the months in his poems? For example, "The waves swell in March." Here March is used because it is early for large waves to be seen. Another example is "June comes with cold wind and cold sun." June is used because such late coldness is unusual. But many of us write lines like "Coldness in November. " when we should avoid such obvious expressions.