LV

 

 
  1. Orbem bellis, urbem gabellis
  2. implevit
  3. And the troops not even paid
  4. And TCHUN the new Lord was dying
  5. but awoke to name Li-Chun his heir
  6. And at this time died Ouei-Kao the just taxer
  7. that set up pensions for widows
  8. His temple stands to this day
  9. that his soldiers built for him.
  10. Honour to TCHUN-TSONG the sick man.
  11. ‘Cut it! you bastard’ said Lin-Yun
  12. ‘Do you take my neck for a whetstone?’
  13. And the rebel Lieou Pi was delighted.
  14. And the censors said Liki has hogged ten provinces’ treasure
  15. If these go to the national treasury
  16. they will go out of circulation
  17. the people thereby deprived,
  18. so HIEN-TSONG threw this into commerce
  19. ta hio

  20. And yet he was had by the eunuchs,
  21. the army 800 thousand
  22. not tilling the earth
  23. And half of the Empire tao-tse hochangs and merchants
  24. so that with so many hochangs and mere shifters
  25. three tenths of the folk fed the whole empire, yet
  26. HIEN reduced the superfluous mandarins
  27. and remitted taxes in Hoai
  28. Li Kiang and Tien Hing were his ministers
  29. remembering TCHING-OUANG, KANG,
  30. HAN-OUEN and HAN KING TI
  31. ‘Men are the basis of empire’, said our lord HIEN-TSONG
  32. yet he died of the elixir,
  33. fooled by the eunuchs, and more Tou-san (tartars) were raiding
  34. MOU-TSONG drove out the taozers
  35. but refused to wear mourning for HIEN his father.
  36. The hen sang in MOU’S time, racin’, jazz dancin’ 
  37. and play-actors, Tartars still raidin’
  38. MOU’S first son was strangled by eunuchs,
  39. Came OUEN-TSONG and kicked out 3000 fancies
  40. let loose the falcons
  41. yet he also was had by the eunuchs after 15 years reign
  42. OU-TSONG destroyed hochang pagodas,
  43. spent his time drillin’ and huntin’
  44. Brass idols turned into ha’pence
  45. chased out the bonzes from temples
  46. 46 thousand temples
  47. chased out the eunuchs
  48. and Tsaï-gin whom he had wished to make empress
  49. hanged herself after his death
  50. saying: I follow to the nine fountains
  51. So SIUEN decreed she shd/ be honoured as First Queen of OU-TSONG
  52. Ruled SIUEN with his mind on the  ‘Gold Mirror’ of TAI TSONG
  53. Wherein is written: In time of disturbance
  54. make use of all men, even scoundrels.
  55. In time of peace reject no man who is wise.
  56. HIEN said: no rest for an emperor. A little spark
  57. lights a great deal of straw.
  58. SIUEN’S income was 18 million strings of a thousand
  59. on salt and wine only
  60. not counting grain, silk etc.
  61. (calculated at french louis d’or 1770
  62. say about 90 millyun pund sterling)
  63. A man who remembered faces
  64. and had by the taozers
  65. tho’ he stood for just price and sound paper
  66. 13 years on the throne.

  67. Y TSONG his son brought a jazz age HI-TSONG
  68. cock fights poverty archery
  69. Squabbles of governors, eunuchs
  70. Sun Te put out the Eunuchs
  71. and got himself murdered
  72. Then came little dynasties, came by murder, by treason, with
  73. the Prince of TÇIN rising.
  74. Li-ké-Yong is not dead’ said Tchu
  75. ‘for his son prolongs him’
  76. whereas my sons are mere pigs and dogs.
  77. HIU cut down taxes and douanes
  78. was hell on extorters
  79. 10 years chançons de gestes
  80. Khitans rising, Yeliou Apaoki and Chuliu, some gal,
  81. HIU, gallant, pugnacious. So they said
  82. In the city of Tching-tcheou are women like clouds of heaven,
  83. Silk, gold, piled mountain high.
  84. Take it before Prince Tçin gets there.
  85. Thus Ouang Yeou to the Khitan of Apaoki
  86. whose son was lost in the mulberry forest
  87. Thus came TÇIN into Empire
  88. calling themselves later TANG
  89. hunters and jongleurs. Comedians were the king’s eyes
  90. but unstable.
  91. Took Chou land in 70 days without disorder
  92. A Prince this was, but no Emperor, paladin, useless to rule.
  93. Tartar Yuen ruled as protector
  94. cut down taxes, analphabetic.
  95. And yet he set all the hawks loose,
  96. said huntin’ is hell on the crops
  97. This Li-ssé Yuen, called MING TSONG , had eight years of good reign
  98. Li Tsongkou ruled his troops by affection
  99. was Prince of Lou at this time 
  100. that is Kungfutseu’s country.
  101. The dowager empress chose him
  102. a great captain under MING TSONG
  103. and they needed troops for defence against tartars
  104. in Chéking-Tang’s department
  105. Called Apaoki son of Chuliu to assist them
  106. And Chéking Tang founded a dynasty
  107. coming up from the ranks
  108. Dry spring, a dry summer
  109. locusts and rain in autumn
  110. and beyond that, lack of specie
  111. tax collectors inhuman.
  112. Chuliu a great Queen of the Tartar
  113. Te Kouang put the emperor in a temple
  114. and supplied him with comforts
  115. tartars put on chinese clothes
  116. Ouan soui!! ten thousand
  117. evviva, evviva Lieou-Tchi-Yuen.
  118. Turk of the horde of Chato, set his city at Caïfon fou
  119. And the tartars called their dead emperor ‘salted’
  120. And it wd/ be now 13 years until SUNG.
  121. Teoui-tchéou said: Lou land has produced only writers.
  122. Said TAÏ-TSOU: KUNG is the master of emperors.
  123. and they brought out Ou-tchao’s edition, 953,
  124. And TAÏ ordered himself a brick tomb with no flummery
  125. no stone men sheep or tigers
  126. CHI-TSONG in the thick by Tçé-tchéou, against Han and tartars
  127. sent reserve troops to the left wing
  128. while he held firm on the right,
  129. saying: now, that they think they have beaten us!
  130. And CHI cleared out the temples and hochang
  131. cleared out 30 thousand temples
  132. and that left 26 hundred
  133. with 60 thousand bonzes and bonzesses.
  134. Chou coin was of iron
  135. And CHI’S men drove the Tang boats from the Hoaï-ho
  136. all north of the great Kiang was to CHI-TSONG.
  137. who lent grain to Hoaï-nan devast.
  138. Died Ouang-po the advisor.
  139. SUNG was for 300 years.
  140. Light was in his birth room and fragrance
  141. as if it were almond boughs
  142. Red the robe of his dynasty
  143. pourvou que ça doure, said his mother
  144. He said: let brothers inherit
  145. you are not here by virtush/
  146. the last HAN was a minor
  147. eunuchs, hochangs and taxers
  148. princes get too much power
  149. TCHAO KOUANG reviewed all capital sentences
  150. took tax power from governors
  151. and centered the army command
  152. South Han was rotted with douanes
  153. was rotted with tortures
  154. Tsiuenpiu in snow had all Chou
  155. and was sixty six days only in taking it. And the emperor
  156. Sent his own coonskin coat to this general
  157. who promptly went gay,
  158. Five stars shone in Koué, five planets
  159. TAI TSONG brought out the true BOOKS 
  160. and there arose in the province of Ssétchuen a revolt
  161. because of the greed of the mandarins.
  162. Not content with their salaries
  163. began to bleed merchants for licences
  164. which new damn tax made money so scarce in that province
  165. that men cdn’t buy the necessities. 
  166. Therefore Ouang Siaopo of the people
  167. demanded just distribution
  168. and they went against Tsing-chin city, and took Pongchan
  169. by violence and cut open the governor’s belly
  170. which they filled up with silver
  171. (bit of what he had extorted)
  172. and  TAI TSONG reigned 22 years
  173. caring for field work. Meanwhile Jelly Hugo
  174. the tartar, a Khitan, freed his people of taxes
  175. and started old age relief. Ghengis rising
  176. And Tchin-Song declined a present of sables (marte zibbeline)
  177. saying it was just as cold for the soldiers.
  178. and in ten four men cried once again Ouan Soui
  179. may he live for 10 thousand years
  180. TCHIN-TSONG
  181. ouan soui, may he live for ten thousand years
  182. who said: don’t worry about coming ages
  183. the people need time to breathe.
  184. And he made terms with the tartars, paid ’em in
  185. silk and in silver
  186. to keep ’em quiet as far as the wall.
  187. And the King of Khitan set court at Tchongking
  188. our lord TCHIN going mumbo
  189. and they buried him with the tracts about heaven
  190. which had wrought his dishonour

  191. and GIN TSONG cleaned out the taozers
  192. and the tartars began using books
  193. Han, Khitan, tartar wars, boredom of.
  194. Money and all that, stabilization, probably racket
  195. 1069
  196. And now Fou-Pié to whom we owed the peace of 1042 with the tartars
  197. returned and was kept and made minister
  198. and CHIN-TSONG lived soberly
  199. with no splurge of table or costumes
  200. and at this time began Ngan
  201. (or more fully Ouang-Ngan-ché) to demand that they reset the market tribunals,
  202. posting every day what was on sale and what the right price of it
  203. as had been under TCHEOU emperors
  204. and that a market tax shd/ go to the emperor from this
  205. thereby relieving the poor of all douanes
  206. giving them easy market for merchandise
  207. and enlivening commerce
  208. by making to circulate the whole realm’s abundance.
  209. and said he knew how hard it wd/ be to find personnel
  210. to look after this, as when YAO had appointed Koen
  211. who could not, and then YU who had drawn off the flood water
  212. And these changes annoyed, greatly, the bureaucrats
  213. whom he sent to confino
  214. that is the most stubborn
  215. and got younger men to replace ’em.
  216. And Liu-hoei said Ngan was a twister
  217. but the Emperor sent back Hoei’s protest
  218. So Hoei begged to retire, and
  219. was sent out to Tengtcheou as governor.
  220. And Ngan saw land lying barren
  221. because peasants had nowt to sow there
  222. whence said: Lend ’em grain in the spring time
  223. that they can pay back in autumn
  224. with a bit of an increase, this wd/ augment the reserve,
  225. This will need a tribunal
  226. and the same tribunal shd/ seek
  227. equity
  228. for all lands and all merchandise
  229. according to harvest and soil
  230. so that the emperor’s tithes shd/ be proportionate
  231. to the rarity or the abundance of merchandise
  232. to make commerce more easy, that the folk be not overburdened
  233. nor yet the imperial revenue be made less.
  234. and Ngan made yet a third point
  235. that was to fix the value of money 
  236. “and to coin enough denars
  237. that shd/ stay always on the same footing.
  238. and Fan-chungin protested
  239. but
  240. Heoi-king argued for Ngan:
  241. no man is forced to borrow this grain in spring time
  242. if peasants find it no advantage
  243. they will not come borrow it.
  244. and Ssé-ma; said, all right in theory
  245. but the execution will be full of abuse
  246. they’ll take it, but not bring it back
  247. TSONG of TANG put up granaries
  248. somewhat like those you want to establish
  249. a measure of ten or twelve pounds cost no more than ten pence
  250. and when the price was put up
  251. they went on buying
  252. and the whole province was ruined
  253. CHIN stayed pro-Ngan; and it was suggested that
  254. drought was due to Ngan’s reforms,
  255. whereto Ngan said droughts had happened before.
  256. and at the 12th moon of the 17th year of this Emperor
  257. Ssé-ma Kouang, Fan Tsuyu and Lieou Ju offered the
  258. HISTORY, called
  259. Tsé-tchi tong kien hang mou
  260. on the model of Tso kieou ming
  261. and this began with the 23rd year of
  262. OUEÏ-LIE of TCHEOU dynasty
  263. and was in 294 books.
  264. Honour to CHIN-TSONG the modest
  265. Lux enim per se omnem in partem
  266. Reason from heaven, said Tcheou Tun-y
  267. enlighteneth all things
  268. seipsum seipsum diffundit, risplende
  269. Is the beginning of all things, et effectu,
  270. Said Ngan: YAO, CHUN were thus in government
  271. Died now the master of Nenuphar
  272. Mandarins oppressing peasants to get back their grain loans,
  273. and his dictionary is, they say, coloured with hochang
  274. interpretations and Taozer, that is Ngan’s.
  275. and merchants in Caïfong put up their shutters in mourning for Ssé-kouang
  276. anti-tao, anti-bhud, anti-Ngan
  277. whose rules had worked 20 years
  278. till Ssé-kouang reversed ’em
  279. Students went bhud rather than take Kung via Ngan,
  280. Flood relief, due to Ngan?
  281. joker somewhere?
  282. came Tsaï King pro-Ngan, probably crooked
  283. and they put Ngan’s plaque in a temple
  284. HOEÏ went taozer, an’ I suppose
  285. Tsaï ran to state usury. The tartar lord
  286. wanted an alphabet
  287. by name Akouta, ordered a written tongue for Kin tartars
  288. And a fox walked into the Imperial palace
  289. and took his seat on the throne
  290. a mad man ran shrieking: change, tartars more tartars
  291. tartars pass over Hoang-ho
  292. And they used paper notes when coin was too heavy for transport
  293. and redeemed those notes at one third/
  294. And there were ever all sorts of disturbers
  295. For there were the tartars, Khitan, that had
  296. taken the old Turk’s country,
  297. and these tartars are called also Leao
  298. And there are Kin tartars, that were under Akouta
  299. and these are called also Nutché, from north of Corea,
  300. and there were the hordes of Ghengiz (TAI-TSOU, Témougin)
  301. of whom was CHI-TSOU or Koublai
  302. Hoang ho, Hoang ho, tartars pass over Hoang ho.
  303. SUNG died of taxes and gimcracks
  304. Mongrels in fish-skin (shagreen, or shark’s skin)
  305. till 1157 the Kin used coin made in China
  306. and Oulo stopped swapping silk for the toys of Hia,
  307. said: men cannot eat jewels
  308. Oulo of Kin, greatest of Kin, under him were books set into Nutché
  309. in his reign were only 18 beheaded
  310. but his brat was run by his missus
  311. and they had an ideological war
  312. ‘mediocrity’s childhood lasts into middle age’
  313. they brought out a text book on music
  314. GHINGIZ (Tchinkis) hearing of alphabets
  315. hearing of mores
  316. and saw a green unicorn speaking
  317. fumée maligne in the underground 1219
  318. said Yéliu Tchutsaï: tax; don’t exterminate
  319. you will make more if you tax ’em.
  320. this was a new idea to the mongols
  321. who wanted to turn all land into grazing
  322. and saw no use for human inhabitants
  323. these mongrels bein’ ’orsemen
  324. Ten percent tax on wine, three and 1/3rd on necessities
  325. mohammeds say different
  326. make more anyhow if you tax ’em
  327. SUNG falling, Antzar went against Kin
  328. by Tang and Teng, let ’em pass.

a.d.805

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 820

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 846

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 860

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 923

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 934

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 947

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 a.d. 978

 

 

 

 

a.d. 993

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 1022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 1084

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a.d. 1172