See the waters of the Yellow
River leap down from Heaven,
Roll away to the deep sea and
never turn again!
See at the mirror in the High
Hall, Aged men bewailing white
locks
In the morning, threads of
silk, In the evening flakes of
snow.
Snatch the joys of life as they
come and use them to the
fullest
Do not leave your gold cup
idly glinting at the moon,
The things that Heaven made
Man was meant to use.
- Excerpt from “Chiang Chin
Chiu,” by Li Pu
Li Pu, who lived and wrote during the T’ang
Dynasty, is one of the great
masters of Chinese poetry. A prolific writer, he
composed in a romantic, lyrical
style, concerning the glories of this brief life:
nature, love, friends,
solitude, and wine. He frequently mentions gold
wine cups, presumably very
similar to this one, as symbols of both wine
induced happiness and luxury.
Holding this cup in our hands, we are connected
to the beauty of life Li Pu
memorialized in his poetry. Although life is
fleeting and beauty transient,
mankind alone is able to transcend the ravages
of time by creating artistic
works of eternal beauty. The poetry of Li Pu is
one such example; this gold wine
cup is another. Both are distinct reflections of
the culture and period in which
they were made. Both reveal a sense of joy and
longing, for even as the wine cup
is full, we know it will soon be empty. This gold
wine cup is more than an
example of the extravagant wealth of the T’ang
Dynasty, it is an eternal
symbol of love, friends, and happiness, all too
fleeting, as elegantly described
in the works of Li Pu.
