71. The instrument translated "guitar" was a p'i-p'a, like the Japanese biwa, as in Tu Fu's Thoughts of Old Time, I. (See note 25.)
72. Sêng, the poet's name, is a variant of Sanka, given as a family name to Buddhist priests.
73. Between Kiang-si and Kuang-tung, even the wildgeese find the Ta-yü (Great Granary) Mountains too high to cross.
Plum-blossoms have not yet opened farther north; but there are plenty in the warm south beyond this mountain.
74. The morning bell, tokening here the separation of friends, was a popular subject among poets as a symbol of finality. For instance, the Chinese spring, beginning on the first day of the First-month, corresponding to early February, ends on the thirtieth day of the Third-month, in our May; and its definite close is sung by Chia Tao in the latter two lines of a four-line poem called The Thirtieth Day of the Third-Month:
75. "The Way" (Tao) is the Way of the Universe, the Flow of Unison. It is the essence of Taoism.
At the age of thirty-one, when his wife died, Wang Wêi left his post as Assistant-Secretary of State and, as told in his poem My Retreat at Chung-nan, came to live by Mount Chung-nan, turning his heart to the teachings of Lao-tzŭ.
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