From Meter to Meaning - Interpretation

Meng Haoran’s poems often depict quiet, solitary sceneries that stem from living his first forty years in relative isolation from the rest of society. Due to his reclusive lifestyle, he spent much of his time observing the natural world surrounding him.

In this particular poem, he builds upon his observation of the natural balance of nature: every pleasant aspect of nature is accompanied by its bleak counterpart.

The first two lines paint a bright spring morning filled with blooming life and the chirping of birds; however, the third line darkens this image with the reference to the shadowy night, where the sound of the heavy rain and wind replaces that of the singing birds. Furthermore, the flourishing life mentioned in the first half of the poem, inferred from the lively songs of the birds, juxtaposes the decaying life — the fallen blossoms — in the latter portion of the poem.

The fact that Meng offsets positive and negative forces demonstrates his belief that there are two sides to every situation.

From Library of Congress, Collected Poems by Meng Haoran, Summary

Meng Haoran is a Tang dynasty poet Meng Haoran (689-740). His given name is unknown, although Hao has been suggested. Haoran was his courtesy name. Born in Xiangyang, Xiangzhou (present-day Xiangyang, Hubei), he also was known as Meng Xiangyang.

Living during the High Tang period, Meng Haoran was not successful in pursuing an official career and throughout his life mostly lived as a recluse in his birthplace. His style is plain and natural.

He and Wang Wei (701-61), another major Tang poet, were jointly known as Wang-Meng. Both were representatives of the school of landscape and pastoral poetry.

Meng Haoran's poetry was printed in various editions. As one of the series of Tang liu shi jia ji (Collected works of 60 Tang poets), this edition is the earliest compilation printed in Sichuan during the Song dynasty. It contains 214 poems in three juan.