Bronze Bird Terrace
The city of Ye by the Zhang River was the seat of the Wei Commandery and an important regional center in the Han dynasty.
Known for his extravagance and indulgence, Shi Hong utilized up to 400,000 workers on construction projects in his new capital city along with Chang'an and Luoyang.
The Three Terraces of Ye, which had fallen into disrepair up to this point,[14] were transformed by these constructions to be "more adorned and embellished than they were at the beginning of [Cao] Wei".
Murong Jun moved his capital to Ye in 357, upon which he ordered the repair of its palaces and the Bronze Bird Terrace.
The incoming Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou issued the "Edict to Destroy Gardens and Terraces of the State of Qi" (毀撤齊國園臺詔) on 2 March 577 in which he denounced the wasteful extravagance of the Qi, proclaimed a return to restraint and frugality, and ordered the destruction of Ye's gardens and the Three Terraces.
Emperor Xuan's father-in-law Yang Jian made a bid for the throne, which prompted the Zhou loyalist general Yuchi Jiong to rise against him in Ye.
[21] The ruins of Ye, of which the Three Terraces is a part, were made a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1988.
[26] Also, the Bronze Bird Terrace and its associated garden were used as places of merrymaking, such that they became the subject of a subset of Jian'an poetry known as "feast poems" (公燕詩),[27] where poets such as Cao Zhi and Liu Zhen (劉楨) write of fleeting happiness and the essence of carpe diem.
[28] 從明后之嬉遊兮 聊登臺以娛情 2 見天府之廣開兮 觀聖德之所營 4 建高殿之嵯峨兮 浮雙闕乎太清 6 立冲天之華觀兮 連飛閣乎西城 8 臨漳川之長流兮 望眾果之滋榮 10 仰春風之和穆兮 聽百鳥之悲鳴 12 天功恒其既立兮 家願得而獲呈 14 揚仁化於宇內兮 盡肅恭於上京 16 雖桓文之為盛兮 豈足方乎聖明 18 休矣美矣 惠澤遠揚 20 翼佐我皇家兮 寧彼四方 22 同天地之矩量兮 齊日月之輝光 24 永貴尊而無極兮 等年壽於東王 26 Let me follow in the footsteps of the enlightened ruler that I may rejoice, And ascend the storied terrace that I may gladden my heart, That I may see the wide extent of the palace, That I may gaze upon the plans of the virtuous one.
He has established the exalted gates high as the hills, He has built the lofty towers piercing the blue vault, He has set up the beautiful building in the midst of the heavens, Whence the eye can range over the cities of the west.
Look up; and there is the gorgeous harmony of springtime, And the singing of many birds delighting the ear; The lofty sky stands over all.
The house desires success in its double undertaking, That the humane influence may be poured out over all the world, That the perfection of reverence may be offered to the Ruler.
The gracious kindness spreads afar, The imperial family is supported, Peace reigns over all the empire, Bounded only by the universe.
At the end of the elegy, Lu Ji asks rhetorically: "Ascending Bronze Bird Terrace, they mourned together; Their beautiful eyes were fixed in a distant gaze, but what could they see?
[32] In Tang poetry, the now-ruined Bronze Bird Terrace joins historical imperial harems in the tradition of "palace resentment poems" (宮怨詩), where the women within were depicted as abandoned and wasting away their youths.
[34] It is from this tradition that the late-Tang poet Du Mu produced his famous quatrain "Red Cliffs" (赤壁), connecting the Battle of Red Cliffs with the Bronze Bird Terrace by textually placing in the terrace the Qiao sisters, famed beauties of the southern lands, had a fortuitous wind not blown in Zhou Yu's favour.
[36] In the Tang dynasty, the literati began collecting tiles purported to be from the Bronze Bird Terrace and shaping them into inkstones.
The receiving party would write poems expressing their gratitude and essays appraising the artifact, sometimes inscribing the words onto the inkstone itself.
Some of these writings criticize the inkstones' collectors as dilettantes for being concerned with owning a piece of history at the price of forgetting history, and held the inkstones in disdain for their association with Cao Cao — as one indignant Yuan dynasty poet Ai Xingfu (艾性夫) puts it: "I request you sir, spit on it, throw it out, and never use it again.
[44] The Ming dynasty novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms attributed to 14th century writer Luo Guanzhong blends historical, literary, and popular traditions into a single narrative.
Nonetheless, the story of the Bronze Bird Terrace and the Qiao sisters in the popular tradition aroused people's imagination for generations.
