Poems from Tang and Song dynasties,operas from Yuan dynasty, and novels from Ming and Qing dynasties are very famous in China' s history. Today, I' d like to recommend Song of Autumn,one of the poems by Liu Yuxi （772-842）, a famous poet and writer in the mid Tang dynasty.
Just as shown in the first line of the poem,most ancient poets liked to describe autumn as a sad time, but in this poem the season appears differently. In Liu' s eyes, autumn, full of life and hope,is even better than spring morning. He describes the bright scene of a crane riding the clouds and flying into the blue sky.
With his poems paying special attention to expressing personal feelings, as well as the daily life of common people, Liu wrote poems with beautiful music- like words. You may feel it in this poem. Though being translated thoughtfully by experienced Xu Yuanchong, the poem still reads not so beautifully as that in Chinese. I personally think that English is sometimes not so powerful as Chinese.
Here is another example, in Liu' s essay An Eulogium on a Humble Cell（《陋室铭》）, with less than 100 words, he shows a lively picture of his humble cell. However, it also shows how he was pleased with the poor and simple life. People may find it strange that one can feel happy living in such a humble cell. Learning from his famous sentence, " be fragrant because of my virtues" （斯是陋室,惟吾德馨）, I think to be a respectable man is more important than to live in big houses, to wear beautiful clothes, to enjoy delicious food, and even to gain knowledge.
