The Yuan 元 period writer of Chinese Sanqu poetry, Shang Ting 商挺 (1209–1288), was also known as Shang Mengqing 商孟卿 and also known in old age as “The Old Man of Zuo Mountain” 左 山老人. He was from Shandong 山東 Province. Shang and his entire family were on familiar terms with the poet and statesman Yuan Haowen 元好問 (1190–1257). His uncle was the sanqu 散曲 poet Shang Dao 商道 (1193?-1258?). Shang Ting served the Mongol monarch Kublai before he took the throne. Later there followed an array of official appointments. When the Yuan Dynasty 元 was officially founded in 1271, Shang was appointed Assistant Administrator in the Secretariat. In later life he was implicated in a wrongful death case and was imprisoned twice. He was later found innocent, but never again took an official position. He died at age eighty and many posthumous titles followed. He was a noted calligrapher and landscape artist. Unfortunately, although a prolific poet, most of his writings were lost. The surviving sanqu poems of the poet are all written to the same musical mode and song title. However the content of the poems suggests they were written at different times. His son Shang Qi 商琦 was likewise an official and artist.
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(Shuangtiao 雙調 : Panfei qu 潘妃曲)
Untitled
Green willows with a wide flowing wind;
Peach and plum vie to shed blossoms.
The swallows are busy,
Pair after pair with bits of nest
Sport in the painted eaves.
Yellow willow leaves
Fine enough for a room’s screen painting.
(Shuangtiao 雙調 : Panfei qu 潘妃曲)
Untitled
Depressed I climb the high tower to gaze out;
Green lotus leaves and red blossoms everywhere.
Summer days long
As Xuan plants and pomegranate flowers
Vie for fragrance.
Green gauze windows,
Fine enough for a room’s screen painting.
Lu Weifen and Wu Gengshun ed., Complete Yuan Period Sanqu Lyrics, Liaoning, 2000, vol. 1, pp. 39–42.
Carpenter, Bruce E. 'Chinese San-ch’ü Poetry of the Mongol Era: I', Tezukayama Daigaku kiyo (Journal of Tezukayama University), Nara, Japan, no. 22, pp. 33–4.
Ma Liangchun and Li Futian ed., The Great Encyclopedia of Chinese Literature, Tianlu, 1991, vol. 7, p. 5443.