Newly-Built Small Bamboo Building in Huangzhou..........Wang Yucheng

黄州新建小竹楼记

王禹偁

黄冈之地多竹，大者如椽，竹工破之，刳去其节，用代陶瓦。比屋皆然，以其价廉而工省也。

子城西北隅，雉堞圮毁，蓁莽荒秽，因作小楼二间，与月波楼通。远吞山光，平挹江濑，幽阒辽夐，不可具状。夏宜急雨，有瀑布声；冬宜密雪，有碎玉声；宜鼓琴，琴调虚畅；宜咏诗，诗韵清绝；宜围棋，子声丁丁然；宜投壶，矢声铮铮然；皆竹楼之所助也。

公退之暇，被鹤氅衣，戴华阳巾，手执《周易》一卷，焚香默坐，消遣世虑。江山之外，第见风帆沙鸟，烟云竹树而已。待其酒力醒，茶烟歇，送夕阳，迎素月，亦谪居之胜概也。

彼齐云、落星，高则高矣；井干、丽谯，华则华矣；止于贮妓女，藏歌舞，非骚人之事，吾所不取。

吾闻竹工云，竹之为瓦，仅十稔。若重覆之，得二十稔。噫，吾以至道乙未岁，自翰林出滁上，丙申移广陵；丁酉又入西掖，戊戌岁除日有齐安之命，己亥闰三月到郡。四年之间，奔走不暇，未知明年又在何处，岂惧竹楼之易朽乎！幸后之人与我同志，嗣而葺之，庶斯楼之不朽也！

咸平二年八月十五日记

Newly-Built Small Bamboo Building in Huangzhou

Wang Yucheng

  Huanggang is rich in bamboos, of which the big ones are as thick as rafters.Bamboo artisans cut them open, hollow their interior joints and use them as roof shingles in place of earthen tiles. All the houses have roofs like this, because bamboo shingles are cheaper and labor-saving.

  In the northwest corner of the interior sub-city, the low parapet walls were in ruins, with thick weeds wantonly growing. I therefore built two small storied bamboo houses there, adjacent to the Moon Wave Building.The bamboo building enables me to look far and view the magnificent mountainscape in the distance, and enjoy a sweeping sight of the shoals and the blue waves of the river. The quiet, vast and extensive scene is really beyond my description. In summer it is quite suitable to have sudden rains, when I can hear the splashing like that of waterfalls. In winter it is also quite fitting to relish heavy snowfalls outside the building, while the falling snow flakes sound like falling of fine pieces of jade.This is a good place to play the lyre-like instrument, which renders melodious and soothing tunes. Here I can recite poems, elegant and wonderful rhymes and rhythms filling the room. Here it is suitable for friends to play Go, with intermittent ticks and tocks of the Go pieces. Here it is also suitable for the arrow-throwing game, which produces pleasant whooshing of arrows being thrown into the pot. All these are attributable to the bamboo building.　　

  In my spare time after official work, I sit silently in the bamboo building, wearing a crane-patterned cloak with a headdress of Huayang scarf, and holding a volume of the Book of Changes with incense burning beside me, to dispel all the worldly concerns and worries. Apart from the wonderful landscape, I only see sails before the breeze, birds on the sandbar, clouds and mist over the bamboos and trees. When I sober up from wine, the fire in the tea stove has gone out; I see off the setting sun and usher in the clear and bright moon. This is the hearty joy I derive from my life of exile.

  Those two buildings, Qiyun (cloudscraper) and Luoxing (starpicker), are fairly high, while the other two, Jinggan (well-drier) and Liqiao (beauty-watcher), are gorgeous enough; yet they are only used to house hookers and accommodate singers and dancers, which is not what the refined poets and writers should do. I therefore do not approve of such a practice.

  I heard a bamboo artisan say that bamboo shingles only lasted ten years, but two layers of them could last twenty years. Alas, in the first year of the reign title of Zhidao (995), I was demoted from the Imperial Academy to Chuzhou, in the second year (996) transferred to Guangling (i.e. Yangzhou) and in the third year (997) transferred again to the Central Secretariat. Then on the New Year’s Eve of the first year of Xianping (998) I got the order of transfer to Qi’an, where I arrived in the third leap lunar month that year (999). I have been on the run these four years, without knowing where I will be the next year. Do I still fear that these bamboo buildings are easy to dilapidate? I hope that dwellers to succeed me in future will have the same interest and continue to make repairs on them as I do, so that these bamboo buildings will not get rotten and collapse!

  Written on the 15th date of the 8th lunar month of the 2nd year of Xianping (999)

Translated by Jin Deming