For Checking
A Letter to Lin Ke\[1\] Regarding the Author of the Poem "Book Burning Pit"
(December 11, 1959)
Lin Ke:
Please check whether the poem "Book Burning Pit" was written by a Zhejiang native Zhang Jie\[2\] (a person of the late Tang dynasty).
The poem goes:
Return after reading to Mao
Bamboo slips turn to smoke, the imperial enterprise void,
Passes and rivers\[3\] vainly lock the dwelling of the First Dragon\[4\].
The pit ashes not yet cold, east of the mountains chaos erupts,
Liu and Xiang\[5\] originally did not read books.
Mao Zedong
December 11
\[1\] Lin Ke, then serving as a secretary in Mao Zedong's office.
\[2\] Zhang Jie, a native of Qiantang (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province) in the Tang dynasty, once passed the imperial examination for *jinshi*, gained renown as a poet during the Xiantong and Qianfu eras, and after the fall of Tang wandered into obscurity. "Book Burning Pit" is a seven-character quatrain he wrote.
\[3\] Passes and rivers, referring to Hangu Pass and the Yellow River.
\[4\] First Dragon, referring to Qin Shi Huang.
\[5\] Liu, referring to Liu Bang; Xiang, referring to Xiang Yu, both leaders of peasant uprisings at the end of the Qin dynasty.