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Upon the Rebels' Retreat: Displayed to the Prefectural Officers

By Yuan Jie Tang Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

In years gone by, through peaceful times I dwelt,
For twenty winters in the mountain woods.
My courtyard fed on bubbling mountain springs,
And deep ravines before my threshold lay.
The village taxes had their settled terms,
And when the sun was high, I still could sleep.

Then sudden changes struck the state and world,
And years were spent amidst the dust of war.
Now sent to rule this border commandery,
I find the mountain tribes in fierce turmoil.
The city is too small for rebels' blades,
Yet destitute, the suffering people weep.
While neighboring lands have fallen to the foe,
This single prefecture remains entire.

Yet I, who bear the sovereign's sacred charge,
Am I more cruel than the bandit hordes?
Those officers who come to wring out dues
Oppress the folk as flames roast flesh and bone.
Who would destroy the lives of innocent men
Just to acquire a reputation now?

I yearn to cast my official seal aside,
Take up a pole and push my fishing boat,
To lead my household where the wheat and fish
Provide an old age by the lakes and streams.

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

昔歲逢太平，山林二十年。
泉源在庭戶，洞壑當門前。
井稅有常期，日[晏]猶得眠。
忽然遭世變，數歲親戎旃。
今來典斯郡，山夷又紛然。
城小賊不屠，人貧傷可憐。
是以陷隣境，此州獨見全。
使臣將王命，豈不如賊焉。
今彼徴斂者，迫之如火煎。
誰能絕人命，以作時世賢。
思欲委符節，引竿自刺船。
將家就魚麥，歸老江湖邊。

xī suì féng tài píng, shān lín èr shí nián.
quán yuán zài tíng hù, dòng hè dāng mén qián.
jǐng shuì yǒu cháng qī, rì yàn yóu dé mián.
hū rán zāo shì biàn, shù suì qīn róng zhān.
jīn lái diǎn sī jùn, shān yí yòu fēn rán.
chéng xiǎo zéi bù tú, rén pín shāng kě lián.
shì yǐ xiàn lín jìng, cǐ zhōu dú jiàn quán.
shǐ chén jiāng wáng mìng, qǐ bù rú zéi yān.
jīn bǐ zhēi liǎn zhě, pò zhī rú huǒ jiān.
shuí néng jué rén mìng, yǐ zuò shí shì xián.
sī yù wěi fú jié, yǐn gān zì cì chuán.
jiāng jiā jiù yú mài, guī lǎo jiāng hú biān.

Philological Direct Translation

Former years encountered great peace, mountain forests twenty years.
Spring sources at courtyard door, grotto valleys facing gate front.
Well taxes had regular periods, day late still got to sleep.
Suddenly met world changes, several years touched military banners.
Now come govern this commandery, mountain barbarians again turbulent.
City small rebels not slaughter, people poor wounded pitiful.
Therefore陷 adjacent borders, this prefecture alone seen whole.
Envoy minister holds king's mandate, how not like rebels fire.
Now those taxation collectors, press them like fire roasting.
Who can cut off people's lives, to make temporal age worthies.
Thinking desire abandon tally seals, pull pole self punt boat.
Taking family follow fish wheat, returning to age rivers lakes side.

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This work is composed in ancient-style verse, specifically the Five-Character Old Verse format, which frees the poet from the rigid tonal constraints and strict parallelism of regulated verse. The poem flows with an expressive, narrative momentum through irregular stanzaic shifts. Rhymes alternate across level and deflected tones, creating an unadorned, vernacular directness that matches the poet's moral outrage and heartfelt confession of weariness.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

The poem was written around 765 during the Tang Dynasty, in the chaotic aftermath of the devastating An Lushan Rebellion. Yuan Jie served as the Prefect of Daozhou in southern China, an impoverished commandery squeezed between wartime devastation and aggressive imperial tax extraction. As an upright scholar-official caught between the cruelty of marauding rebels and the rapacious greed of the imperial tax collectors, Yuan Jie experienced acute moral distress, ultimately choosing identification with the suffering peasantry over bureaucratic compliance.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The structural arc moves from nostalgic pastoral seclusion to the harsh realities of wartime administration, culminating in a radical personal renunciation. The opening couplets establish a poignant contrast between his former life of Daoist retirement and his current administrative burden.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): The poet recalls two decades of peaceful reclusion among mountain springs and deep valleys, evoking the ideal of quietude.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): The regular rhythms of taxes and restful mornings highlight a harmonious existence before the outbreak of rebellion shattered the social order.
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): The scene shifts to the grim present of the commandery, where small walls spared by rebels still enclose destitute, pitiable subjects.
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): The poem culminates in the famous resolution to abandon official tallies and retire to a fisherman's life by the rivers and lakes, echoing the ultimate Daoist retreat from worldly corruption.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The text employs powerful domestic and political imagery to convey moral weight without relying on obscure mythological allusions.

Mountain Forests and Streams: Symbolize the Daoist ideal of pristine freedom, untainted by the dust of the imperial bureaucracy.
Fire Roasting: The agonizing metaphor in Line 10 ("press them like fire roasting") vividly depicts the merciless cruelty of government tax collectors, equating state-sanctioned extortion with physical torture.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

The poem bridges Confucian moral duty and Daoist personal detachment. While Confucianism compels the official to care for the people, the systemic corruption of the state makes upright governance impossible, driving the poet toward the Daoist refuge of voluntary exile. This tension between public conscience and the desire for spiritual preservation gives the work universal resonance, speaking to any age where human vulnerability clashes with institutional oppression.