By Xinyi Li, EDITOR

During the Spring Festival, Fengjie appeared again in a TV program called Chinese Poetry Congress (Season 4). This TV show especially prefers Fengjie, the “City of Poems” in China Chongqing.

On the evening of February 9, the hostess Dong Qing read the poem of Bamboo Branch Song. It marked the beginning of the fifth session of Chinese Poetry Congress (Season 4). This show displayed the profound poetic culture and beautiful natural scenery of Chongqing’s Fengjie, the “City of Poems” in China.

Fengjie County, the city of poems

Liu Yuxi is a poet in the Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.–907 A.D.). Deeply inspired by the local folk songs when he was Feudal Provincial of Kuizhou, he wrote the Bamboo Branch Song. Du Fu had boarded the highest platform of Baidicheng (White Emperor City) to take a glance of the Kuimen Gate. He sighed, “The boundless forest sheds its leaves shower by shower. The endless river rolls its waves hour after hour.” The “Immortal Poet” Li Bai had passed through the Qutang Gorge for three times. His poem reads, “With apes’ endless crowing on the riverbanks, my boat has left ten thousand mountains far away.”

The gorgeous skyline of Fengjie County

Fengjie County in the TV program

This program showed Fengjie’s promotional video for many times and also displayed a lot of scenic spots there. They included the Top of Three Gorges, the Kuimen Gate, the Qutang Gorge, Baidicheng, and the Navel Orange Orchard. The quizzes in the show mainly centered on the millennial cultural inheritance of Fengjie, the ancient Kuizhou.

The TV program, Chinese Poetry Congress (Season 4)

It presented a picture of a pottery figurine from the Kuizhou Museum to the audience. This picture led to two lines of a seven-character poem by Li Bai. The poem is Thank a Petty Official of Zhongdu for Taking a Pot of Wine and Two Fish to an Inn. The two lines read: “Call the kid to clean the chopping board and cut the meat with a shiny knife. The red pieces of the fish are like flowers while the white ones are as snow.” The poem helped the audience have a further understanding of Fengjie’s culture.

Fengjie County in poems

It presented many poems about Kuizhou to the audience through the hostess’ broadcasting, the contestants’ answers, and the guests’ comments. They included Li Bai’s Setting Off Early from Baidi City and Du Fu’s On the Height. Besides, Liu Yuxi’s Bamboo Branch Song (I) is one of them. Thanks to the profound poetry history of Fengjie, the program has shown its poetry culture in a concentrated way.

The gorgeous skyline of Fengjie County

Fengjie boasts “four bests” in the history of Chinese poetry. Li Bai’s Leave the White Emperor City at Dawn is the “best one for quickness”. Du Fu’s On the Height is the “best one of eight lines”. Moreover, Liu Yuxi’s Bamboo Branch Song (I) is “the best love poem”. Moreover, To Fu Zuoji, a six-character poem, is the “best scenery-related one” by Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

Source: Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development