Another well-known painting by Han Gan, entitled Shiny Night White (Zhao Ye Bai), depicts an animated white stallion by that name tied to a post. In the imperial collection since the eighth century, the famous painting would be illegally removed from the Forbidden Palace in 1911 by Prince Pu-ru, half brother of Henry Pu-yi, last emperor of China. The painting would end up in the private collection of Sir Percival and Lady David of London, on loan to the British Museum. After 1977, this famous painting, purchased as a Dillon Fund gift, would come to be in the permanent collection of the Douglas Dillon Galleries for Chinese Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and on view since 1981.

Han Gan's ink and color painting on silk, entitled: Groom Presenting Horses, would in modern come to be on permanent exhibit at Musee Cernuschi in Paris.

Henri Cernuschi (1821-1896), Italian political economist, fervent republican and supporter of Garibaldi, would go to France in 1850 where he would eventually become a director of the Bank of France. He would become an advocate of the use of silver as a monetary standard and would coin the word bimetallism. Cernuschi would excel as a collector of Chinese art and would make a gift of his mansion and its priceless contents to the city of Paris upon his death.

As you know, I wrote the following poem which describes the feelings of a Chinese concubine, Harmonious Cloud, on being taken from Chung-tu, as Beijing then was, all the way to the Ferghana valley, where Genghis-khan was then encamped. This was in 1221 AD (my novel on this theme is published next year). Khojend is also known as the Iron Gate Pass. If you travel there from the east, you suddenly see spread over the rim of the world, Turkestan, Persia and the land of desert and oases that lies between Bukhara and Samarkand. Below you to the left is Lake Issyk-kul, a turquoise gem 60 kilometres long, and 15000 feet above sea level, embedded in white and coral mountains. This is one of the places which, as Henry says, used to be in the USSR but is now run by branch offices of the IMF and the CIA. (Harmonious Cloud became the khan's paramour and decisively altered his attitudes and intentions towards China).

I've vacationed there and it is as she describes.

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Chinese concubine's poem to Temujin

Crossing the desert I saw each red dawn,
Each sunset I saw the vast night reborn.
To come here you brought me ten thousand leagues!
What use is fame, that is bought with intrigues?
Arrow-sharp cut the wind through Tiên Shan,
The moon shone white as the fleece of the ram.
My sorrowing tears wet my horse's mane,
Riding west of Iron Gate Pass I could gain
Only the hiss on hiss of sands that slashed
My face, while north winds coiled and crashed
And the pale grass whistled and moaned beneath;
Thus was I brought through bleak desert and heath.
The sky in the eighth month is full of snow;
As the spring winds blossoms from pear trees blow,
When thousands and tens of thousands of trees
Scatter fragrant blooms that waft in the breeze,
That fill the air in the orchards around,
And lie in white carpets over the ground,
So the unlooked-for sudden blizzard shrieks
Unrelenting and vile for weeks and weeks,
It coats the damp bed-curtains, frosts the felt,
Chills the fox-fur, stiffens the padded quilt.
My lord it was who brought and forsook me,
Not for another but war's gallantry.
Strong is the one whose hand the wind catches,
Who stole my soul, yet no blame attaches.
Now ice clenches my lord's iron cuirass.
Ice hangs from walls, yard on yard in a mass.
The archers cannot draw the horn-spliced bow,
And the freezing spear is too cold to throw.
Above us snow-packed clouds loom stark and drear,
But word has come that the passes are clear.
In the camp we drink to departing guests,
Pi-pa, violin, Tibetan flute arrests
The gloom, though evening snow falls on the gate
And wind tears the banners frozen in state.
At the parting we shall say what we can
To cheer you on the road to Tiên Shan,
Snow-filled and twisting it takes you from sight,
Soon all that is left are hoof prints and night.
But my lord is my life, I wait his word.
In his heart I dwell like a caged bird,
This dwelling will ever my kingdom be,
And in it he'll always be ruled by me!

(variant)

Chinese concubine's poem to Temujin

Crossing the desert I saw each red dawn,
Each sunset I saw the vast night reborn.
To come here you brought me ten thousand leagues!
What use is fame, that is bought with intrigues?

Arrow-sharp cut the wind through Tiên Shan,
The moon shone white as the fleece of the ram.
My sorrowing tears wet my horse's mane,
Riding west of Iron Gate Pass I could gain
Only the hiss on hiss of sands that slashed
My face, while north winds coiled and crashed
And the pale grass whistled and moaned beneath;
Thus was I brought through bleak desert and heath.
In the eighth month the sky's full of flying snow
As the spring winds blossoms from pear trees blow,
When thousands and tens of thousands of trees
Scatter fragrant blooms that waft in the breeze,
That fill the air in the orchards around,
And lie in white carpets over the ground,
So the unlooked-for sudden blizzard shrieks
Unrelenting and vile for weeks and weeks,
It coats the damp bed-curtains, frosts the felt,
Chills the fox-fur, stiffens the padded quilt.

My lord it was who brought then forsook me,
Not for another but war's gallantry.
Strong is the one whose hand the wind catches,
Who stole my soul, yet no blame attaches.
Now ice clenches my lord's iron cuirass.
Ice hangs from walls, yard on yard in a mass.
The archer cannot draw the horn-spliced bow,
And the freezing spear is too cold to throw.
Above us snow-packed clouds loom stark and drear,
But word has come that the passes are clear.
In the camp we drink to departing guests,
Pi-pa, violin, Tibetan flute arrests
The gloom, though evening snow falls on the gate
And wind tears the banners frozen in state.
At the parting we shall say what we can
To cheer you on the road to Tiên Shan,
Snow-filled and twisting it takes you from sight,
Soon all that is left are hoof prints and night.
But my lord is my life, I wait his word.
In his heart I dwell like a caged bird,
This dwelling will ever my kingdom be,
And in it he'll always be ruled by me!

In response to Mark's poem on an imperial concubine, I take the liberty to translate the following. My apologies for the clumsy translation which does not do the poems justice. Chinese emperors routinely had 3,000 imperial concubines. So loneliness was an occupational hazard for these beauties.

Bai Juyi (772-846), celebrated Tang poet, would compose a poem entitled: Palace Verse (Gong Ci), describing the frustration and sad fate of a typical lonely court beauty:

"Tears exhausted, handkerchief soaked, dreams fade into oblivion,
In the deep of the night she hears jovial songs from the front pavilion.
Beauty has yet to age while affection is already worn,
Leaning against the warmth of a drying basket she sits alone until dawn."
Tang poet Chu Qingyu's poem entitled: Inside Palace Ode (Gongzhong Ci), must have described the feelings of imperial concubines:

"Silently the palace gates close while the garden is still flowery,
Two beauties lean over an exquisite balcony.
Stirred by melancholy and eager for court gossip,
Yet before a parrot they dare not part their lips."

Contrasting the lonely frustrations of huangfeis (imperial concubines) and their fear of informants that even the prospect of rote resuscitation by a parrot can inhibit their impulse to gossip with their friends, Chu Qingyu in another poem describes the happy life of a commoner's new bride, all imperial concubines would not be lucky enough to experience. The untitled poem goes as follows:

"The conjugal bed last night interrupted red nuptial candles,
Awaiting dawn to pay respect to new aunts and uncles.
After applying makeup she coyly asks her husband and life companion,
Whether her eyebrows have been drawn in the latest fashion."

Tang poet Meng Jiao would write a well-known poem entitled: Virtuous Women Commandment (Lie Nu Cao), setting forth the standard of behavior for chaste women:

"Trees grow old together,
Lovebirds die with their mates;
Virtuous women take pride in being burial companions of their deceased husbands,
Giving up their lives properly.
Vowing not to stir waves,
The heart of a concubine should be as still as the water in an ancient well."

Despite the implied mutuality placed on both sexes by the poem's top 2 lines which describe mating traits of non-human life forms, the burden of sacrifice among human mates is placed solely on women by the poem. Young Chinese girls from good families are expected to memorize the poem from a young age, and taught to believe behavior at odd with that extolled in the poem to be deviant.