Active in the early eighth century
Wang Han
王翰
Read three poems by Wang Han: a luminous cup before battle, frontier music recalling Chang’an, and spring boats imagined by a homesick traveler.
Wang Han was active in the early eighth-century Tang. The Wikisource author record identifies him with Jinyang and links a traditional biography. Exact birth and death years are not supplied here. The three poems on this shelf offer a small route through his writing, not a complete collection or an account of every aspect of his work.
A cup and a question
The first Liangzhou song opens with grape wine and a luminous cup, then introduces music urging the moment onward. Its final question about returning from war changes the weight of the drinking scene. Read the whole quatrain before deciding that its surface confidence removes the prospect of death. The address to “you” asks how a listener will judge the speaker.
The second Liangzhou song places two seasons beside each other: flowers and birds near the homeland may already be past their height, while wind and sand outside the passes remain cold. A night performance brings Chang’an into thought. Notice how distance is conveyed through uneven seasonal change as well as a place-name.
Follow the imagined boats
Spring Thoughts of Home moves from actual willow and apricot blossoms to boats on Ruoye Stream that the traveler cannot see. The closing question preserves that absence; it does not narrate a homecoming or identify the women in the imagined scene as personal acquaintances.
All three readings link Quan Tang shi, juan 156 as their Chinese source. Compare them through wine, frontier, and homesickness. Shared tune titles also occur under other poets’ names, so the author and the individual text both matter when choosing a Liangzhou poem.
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