Drawing a Bottle Gourd by Imitation
The Fall of a State
Meng Zong: Wept Till the Bamboo Sprouted
Give the Enemy a Ray of Hope |
Tao Gu served as a hanlin xueshi, a document writer at court, when Zhao Guangyin ascended the throne as the first emperor of the Song Dynasty. As a hanlin xueshi, he was only required to draft some documents and notices. Thinking highly of himself, and judging the court would not keep him in this position for long, he tried hard to show his talents in his work. Then, he asked somebody to put in a good word for him with the Emperor, expecting a promotion. But the Emperor said with a smile, "It has been often said that the works of a hanlin are based on old drafts; the best he can do is to change some words or phrases every time he write. This is what is customarily called 'drawing a bottle gourd according to a given sample sketch.'" Certainly, the Emperor did not mention anything about promotion, which was out of the question. Told of this, Tao Gu was very unhappy, and so he wrote the aforementioned poem on the wall of the hanlin yuan (The Hall of Hanlin). |
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