Too Solitary to Stay: Liu Zongyuan’s Little Stone Pool

‘Because the setting was too desolate, I could not remain long; so I recorded it and left.’ This sentence comes from Liu Zongyuan’s Tang-dynasty essay commonly known as The Little Stone Pool, originally titled An Account of the Little Stone Pool West of the Small Hill. Here qing means desolate rather than simply clear, and ju means to remain, not to make a home.

Earlier, the sound of water delights the writer, and watching the fish brings pleasure too. Once seated, however, he feels chill and solitude. The essay does not deny the pool’s beauty: it preserves a change in feeling. For a reader today, an attractive place need not be somewhere one can feel at ease. Acknowledging that difference means we need not turn a passing pleasure into a permanent home.

https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?chapter=590261&if=en&remap=gb
https://www.tup.tsinghua.edu.cn/upload/books/yz/053885-02.pdf