A Great Poet and His Famous Poem

Meng Jiao (751-814) was a Tang poet especially famed for his four-line masterpiece entitled “The Wandering Son’s Song”. In the history of Chinese poetry， there has never been a poem before and since that can be compared to this brief but well written and most popular piece that relates a wandering son’s regret and gratitude and his mother’s love. It is arguably one of the greatest all-time Chinese poems. In 1992， it was voted the best Tang poem in a public poll in Hong Kong. The UNESCO recommends it as a must for primary school pupils. It is a “must choice” in all kinds of Tang poetry anthologies and collections.

Meng Jiao was born in Deqing， a county about 40 kilometers north of Hangzhou， the capital of eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province. In a life stricken with poverty， he wrote about 500 poems. He came home at the age of 50. He was to travel with his mother from their hometown in Deqing to Liyang County in the neighboring Jiangsu Province where he was an official in a county government.

It is said that the Tang Dynasty saw in Meng Jiao a poet who suffered the worst twists of fate. He tried twice in vain at the top-tier national civil servant examination. He finally passed the examination and came out at the top in 796 at the age of 46， putting an end to endless worry and hard work over long years. He composed a poem famously describing how he viewed all the blooming flowers in the capital city in a fine spring day after he passed the examination.

This glory did not bring much to his lifestyle and attitude. Meng Jiao was first and foremost a poet. He had qualifications but he waited for four years before he got an appointment. At the age of 50， he was appointed police chief at Liyang County. It was a low-ranking county-level civilian job and the job description for this position included pressing the payment of taxes and policing the county for public security. Too many scholars in the dynasty were unwilling to take such an appointment. At his age， Meng Jiao had long been a celebrated poet. But a government career was something new to him. His friends urged him to accept the appointment.

At Liyang County， Meng Jiao led a relatively comfortable life. But as a poet pure and simple， he lacked knowledge that could guide him to navigate safely through office politics and he did not have a passion for his office work. The county magistrate ordered to cut his wage by 50% as punishment. Meng quit the career and comfortable life. This resignation plunged himself again into poverty. In the last years of his life， his three sons died， striking the worst blow to the old poet. In the autumn of 814， the 64-year-old poet became sick and died when he was traveling to join a friend working as a high-ranking government official. He was so poverty-stricken that he did not have a cent left. His friends and relatives chipped in and made arrangements for a funeral at Luoyang. His death shocked Tang poets.

The existing Meng Jiao Memorial in Wukang Town， the capital of Deqing County was erected in the 1990s with the donations from local villagers.

The first memorial was built by hometown people toward the last years of the Tang Dynasty. As Wukang was a place of military strategic significance， the town was ravaged many times in wars from Tang Dynasty up to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The Meng Jiao Memorial was destroyed and restored many times. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)， the memorial house was protected as villagers turned it into a warehouse.

In 2001， the Deqing County Government had a statue of Meng Jiao erected in a park. In 2002， a park in the county capital was named after Meng Jiao. At the entrance to the park is a large sculpture in relief with an inscription of Meng Jiao’s famous poem handwritten by Bing Xin (1900-1999)， a well known female writer of the 20th-century China.

So far， the county has held two festivals to celebrate the culture of travelers. The promoted culture touches upon such topics as love， hometown， roots， travel and homecoming， thanksgiving， etc. The celebrations attracted many poets. In order to protect its heritage， Deqing has registered two trademarks Meng Jiao and Travelers’ Culture with the national authority. In 2008， Chinese Travelers’ Festival was designated as one of the 14 provincial festivals by Zhejiang Provincial Government. □