The Egret in Medieval Chinese Literature *

The egret had been used and recognized as a faunal image implying purity and moral worth from the time of the earliest appearance of the bird in written texts, dating back to the Shih ching where reference to it is made in three poems—one from the “Airs of Ch’en”, one from the “Hymns of Chou”, and one from the “Hymns of Lu”. Certain common descriptions of the egret are encountered regularly in T’ang poetry. During the closing decades of the dynasty, many poets also turned to writing verses on topics of an increasingly indoor nature, such as the exquisite furnishings of ladies’ boudoirs or the sumptuous ornamentation of patrician residences. It may have been noticed that in the poems quoted so far, the season of the year, when specified, is invariably autumn. The egret could on occasion be an ominous bird.