At Dusk, Stopping at Xiulu, a Monk cover

At Dusk, Stopping at Xiulu, a Monk

Rating 2.9
Word count
3K words
Chapters
48

Tags

Summary

"Mooring at Night by the Road-Mending Monk" is a five-character regulated verse by the Tang poet Cui Tu.

Editor's review

In this five-character regulated verse, Cui Tu depicts a traveler seeking lodging at dusk from a monk who repairs roads—a subject rare in Tang poetry. The traveler and the road-mending monk meet in the fading light: the weariness of travel and the stillness of one detached from the world mirror each other across just eight lines. The form demands steady parallelism and compressed imagery, and Cui Tu handles it with ease, giving an everyday scene lasting resonance. Readers glimpse a slice of Tang travel life: roads, monks, dusk, lodging—elements that together form a warm genre painting. This edition, printed by Shanghai Jinzhang Book Company, is brief and well suited as a light introduction to Cui Tu's style and to Tang five-character regulated verse, and equally suited to reading in spare moments on a journey, echoing the traveler's mood in the poem.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers interested in Tang five-character regulated verse and travel themes
  • Readers who want to know Cui Tu's style and broaden their reading of late Tang poets
  • Readers who like to read while traveling and seek resonance with their mood

Not a good fit for

  • Scholars needing extensive annotation and textual collation
  • Readers who prefer grand historical narratives or intense emotional expression

Reading tips

  1. First clarify the relationships in the poem: the situations of the traveler and the road-mending monk, then feel how they converge
  2. Note the parallelism in the middle two couplets and see how Cui Tu uses paired lines to advance scene and feeling
  3. Read it while traveling and imagine yourself in the dusk lodging scene
  4. After reading, compare it with other Tang travel poems to sense similarities and differences in handling the theme

About the publisher

Jinzhang Book Company (Jinzhang Shuju) China · Founded in 1901

Jinzhang Book Company (Jinzhang Shuju) was a private publishing and distribution house in Shanghai during the late Qing and early Republican periods, issuing traditional works by lithographic printing. Judging from the 1,194 titles in the collection, its publishing focused on classical poetry, Eastern philosophy, historical reading, traditional Chinese medical texts, and canonical works, along with books on literary appreciation. Representative titles include the poetry and prose collections of Du Fu and Ouyang Xiu; historical works such as the Book of Han and Zizhi Tongjian; classical texts such as the Book of Documents and Mencius; and specialized and literary classics such as Treatise on Cold Damage and Li Sao. Its author resources cover major figures across the ages, including Du Fu, Ban Gu, Sima Guang, Zhang Zhongjing, Qu Yuan, Ouyang Xiu, and Tang Shenwei, reflecting the house's characteristic reliance on traditional scholarship and medical literature while serving general readers. Public information on its early history and operational details is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 【读故许昌薛尚书诗集】郑谷
  3. 卷677_1【送水部张郎中彦回宰洛阳】郑谷
  4. 卷677_2【赠咸阳王主簿】郑谷
  5. 卷677_3【松】郑谷
  6. 卷677_4【梅】郑谷
  7. 卷677_5【鹤】郑谷
  8. 卷677_6【重阳夜旅怀】郑谷
  9. 卷677_7【壬戌西幸后】郑谷
  10. 卷677_8【多虞】郑谷
  11. 卷677_9【短褐】郑谷
  12. 卷677_10【曲江红杏】郑谷
  13. 卷677_11【折得梅】郑谷
  14. 卷677_12【牡丹】郑谷
  15. 卷677_13【寂寞】郑谷
  16. 卷677_14【乱后灞上】郑谷
  17. 卷677_15【长门怨二首】郑谷
  18. 卷677_16【郊野戏题】郑谷
  19. 卷677_17【宗人惠四药】郑谷
  20. 卷677_18【题张衡庙】郑谷
  21. 卷677_19【山鸟】郑谷
  22. 卷677_20【黯然】郑谷
  23. 卷677_21【借薛尚书集】郑谷
  24. 卷677_22【小北厅闲题】郑谷
  25. 卷677_23【菊】郑谷
  26. 卷677_24【赠杨夔二首】郑谷
  27. 卷678_1【中秋夜有怀】许彬
  28. 卷678_2【寻白石山人涧】许彬
  29. 卷678_3【游头陀寺上方】许彬
  30. 卷678_4【归山夜发湖中】许彬
  31. 卷678_5【同友人会裴明府县楼】许彬
  32. 卷678_6【荆山夜泊与亲友遇】许彬
  33. 卷678_7【北游夜怀】许彬
  34. 卷678_8【重经汉南】许彬
  35. 卷678_9【湘江】许彬
  36. 卷678_10【黔中书事】许彬
  37. 卷678_11【经李翰林庐山屏风叠所居】许彬
  38. 卷678_12【酬简寂熊尊师以赵员外庐山草堂见借】许彬
  39. 卷678_13【寄怀孙处士】许彬
  40. 卷678_14【汉南怀友人】许彬
  41. 卷678_15【送人下第归江州】许彬
  42. 卷678_16【送苏处士归西山】许彬
  43. 卷678_17【送李处士归山】许彬
  44. 卷678_18【送新罗客归】许彬
  45. 卷678_19【府试莱城晴日望三山】许彬
  46. 卷678_20【题故李宾客庐山草堂】许彬
  47. 卷679_1【秋夕送友人归吴】崔涂
  48. 卷679_2【长安逢江南僧】崔涂

FAQ

What is Cui Tu's standing in Tang poetry, and is reading this poem worthwhile?
Cui Tu is not a first-rank Tang master, but precisely for that reason his work shows the more everyday, broader face of Tang poetry. This poem's subject is distinctive and its craft steady, making it a good sample for understanding Tang travel poetry and the actual achievement of five-character regulated verse, and helpful for broadening one's reading.
What should one look for in reading five-character regulated verse?
The form stresses parallelism in the middle two couplets and tonal harmony throughout. Watch how lines three and four and lines five and six pair up; parallelism often advances the thought through juxtaposition. Grasping the parallel structure clarifies the poem's layers and makes the poet's care in crafting lines easier to appreciate.
Will not knowing the identity of the road-mending monk affect my understanding?
Not much. The monk's act of repairing roads already conveys labor and cultivation, and readers can sense his identity and situation from the literal text. There is no need to research specific institutions; just focus on the atmosphere and mood when traveler and monk meet.

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About the author

崔涂 Author

Cui Tu was a poet of the Tang dynasty. His dates of birth and death, place of origin, and other biographical details are unknown, and the publicly available information is limited. Judging from the three works held in the collection, his writing consists mainly of classical poetry, with subjects drawn from temples and monks' quarters, evening scenes encountered on journeys, and friendships with figures outside worldly affairs; poems such as "Inscribing the Sui Pine Courtyard of Xing Shan Temple for a Friend" and "Mooring at Night by the Road-Mending Monk" both belong to the genres of travel record and verse exchange. His style tends toward quiet simplicity and detached clarity, using concrete scenes to convey the feelings of travel and reflections on human affairs, with a concise language that avoids elaborate description. Because few of his works survive, his life is difficult to examine in detail, and later attention to him and his poetry has focused mainly on the literary appreciation of the works themselves. The available materials can only sketch the general outline of his writing; a fuller account of his life and circle of acquaintance remains to be verified.

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