#69 𝓛𝓮𝓽 𝓲𝓽 𝓼𝓷𝓸𝔀, 𝓶𝔂 𝓭𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓔𝓶𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓸𝓻

With the current snow season kicking off in China now, there are some picturesque moments in Beijing especially in places like the majestic Imperial Palace.

The above weibo post from The Palace Museum 故宫博物院 reads (see above :

"不知庭霰今朝落, 疑是林花昨夜开"

and what is its meaning?

(Note : weibo 微博 is a Chinese microblogging website., and it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users as of Q1 2022.)

❄️❄️❄️

These two lines came from a noted Tang poet Song Zhiwen (宋之问) in his poem 《苑中遇雪应制》which I would translate as "A poem written on the order of the Emperor (应制) which focuses on the situation when one encounters snow in the Imperial Garden (苑)".

Below is my translation of these two lines:

"𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚏𝚕𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚢𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚝𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢.

𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚢𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝."

So these two lines transform the snow scene in the courtyard of the Imperial Garden into an alluring spot akin to a flower blossoming which delights the Emperor, and hence this is what 应制 is about i.e. to honour or please the Emperor.

I think this is a good allusion as snowing brings inconvenience to people but the above two lines help one to feel good about it by adopting a different perspective. These two lines also illustrate the beauty of Chinese language as one could be very creative to wow the readers and bring them on board to share your inner thoughts.

Below are some of the captivating photos posted by the weibo post (copyright to The Palace Museum).