Five Hundred Stone Cave-Heaven Feather-Duster, Volume 8

My late wife, the Lady Wang, previously composed several verses as part of a series on the Honglou Meng Dream of the Red Chamber. After she passed away, I organized them and gathered four pieces, which are the ones now included in my own book of miscellaneous talk. In the winter of the Yiwei year 1895, while living in the countryside with nothing to do, I felt a sense of nostalgic longing for my late wife’s old works. Unable to hold back, and unable to resist the common practice, I followed my inspiration and composed one hundred jueju four-line poems on the same theme. I placed them in a small basket, intended only for my own amusement, not for others to see.

This winter, yielding to the requests of my fellow students, I removed half of those that lacked significant meaning, leaving twenty-five, each with two jueju, and gave them to be proofread. My peers immediately published and distributed them, requesting poems in response without letting me know. By the time I noticed, the mail was already arriving in a steady stream. Since the deed was done, I could not easily stop them. I received poems in response from a number of people.

Those who arrived at the Ji-kai study room included: Wen Muliu, a Metropolitan Graduate taishi from Jiaying; Ling Qin, a Provincial Graduate biejia; Li Xiang, from Congyin; Jing Kui, a government student maocai from Haigeng; Zhang Yaoqiu, a student shangshe from Hanxiang; Que Zhong; Qiu Zhong; the younger brother of the Ministry of Works official Fengjia, the student Shujia; Xu Yunbo, an Advanced Scholar jinshi; Nan Ying; Kang Yanqiu, a student shangshe; Sang Panyu; Pan Lanshi; Yu Feisheng; Liang Feizhong, a commoner from Dongguan; Tan Bingxuan, a Prefect from Nanhai; Huo Fengqiao, a commoner from Jichuan; Zhu Li’an, a Magistrate from Shanghai; Zhaoji; Cheng Dihua, a commoner; Lianfang; Li Zhiting, a commoner from Cixi; and Lin Yuntai, a Prefect from Dongguan.