Ancient Poetry Shines
A 7-year-old girl recites Welcome Rain on a Spring Night, a poem from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), in front of a thatched cottage in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in southwest China. “The good rain knows its season, when spring arrives. It brings life… Dawn sees this place now red and wet, the flowers in Chengdu are heavy with rain.”
The cottage is one of the most famous attractions for literary pilgrims from all over the country. Its long-ago dweller Du Fu (712-770), author of Welcome Rain on a Spring Night, is a legendary poet who has greatly influenced China for over a 1,000 years.
The scene is part of , a BBC documentary first aired in April. Directed by Michael Wood, a historian at the University
