Xiang Bo

Xiang Bo (The Eunuch of the Palace Lane)

Preface: Xiang Bo is a poem satirizing King You of Zhou. A eunuch suffered injury from slanderous words and thus composed this poem.

Patterns interwoven, bright and clear,

Weave a brocade of shell-shaped design.

That man who spreads slanders and harms,

His deeds are truly too extreme.

Wide open, gaping like a mouth,

It forms the Southern Winnowing Star.

That man who spreads slanders and harms,

Who is fit to plot with him?

To and fro, ceaselessly they come,

Plotting to frame and slander men.

Be cautious of your words, I say—

They call you insincere and false.

Frivolous and fickle in their ways,

They scheme to fabricate slanders.

Though at first they may heed your words,

In the end they will cast you aside.

The prosperous man rejoices with glee,

The disappointed one is full of sorrow.

O blue Heaven, O blue Heaven!

Look upon those who are proud and pleased,

And pity those who are downcast.

That man who spreads slanders and harms,

Who is fit to plot with him?

Seize that man who spreads slanders,

And cast him to the wolves and tigers.

If wolves and tigers refuse to eat him,

Cast him to the northern barren lands.

If the northern barren lands refuse him,

Cast him to the blue Heaven above.

The road that leads to Yang Garden

Runs close by the Acre Mound.

I, the eunuch Mengzi,

Have composed this poem.

All you noble gentlemen,

Listen to it with reverence.

Xiang Bo has seven stanzas: four stanzas of four lines each, one stanza of five lines, one stanza of eight lines, and one stanza of six lines.

This group of poems, Jie Nan Shan (The Lofty Southern Mountain), comprises ten pieces, seventy-nine stanzas, and five hundred and fifty-two lines.