I have a relationship with a dead man.

It's not what you think. He died ages ago (772 AD to be precise) and lived in China.

Naturally, it's a very one-sided relationship.

His name is Yuan Jie 元结 and once upon a time he was a Tang Dynasty official. I wont bore you with the nitty-gritty details of his life. I assume that really, you don't care (as you'll see later, you're in good company in that regard), and instead just tell you of my affair with him.

I came across his poetry in my Tang/Song poetry class. He wrote a poem entitled "Ballad of Chongling" which I simply fell in love with. When we had to select our topic, I jumped to get him. A poet as distinct as this, I thought, MUST have scholarship about him.

Boy was I wrong.

First, evidently NO ONE WRITES ABOUT THE TANG DYNASTY IN ENGLISH. Which is odd, considering it's kiiiiiinda a big deal. Like 300 year long reign, Golden Age of Chinese civilization, tons of innovation sort of big deal. But evidently that's not interesting enough for us WESTERN scholars.

Then, NO ONE CARES ABOUT YUAN JIE. I mean, this guy is AMAZING. OK, so he's no Shakespeare (or, more correctly Du Fu), but the fact that he wrote against the state in such a bold and vitriolic way....HE DEFENDED BARBARIANS FOR HEAVENS SAKE!!! I mean, this guy did something, and he just gets pushed to the sidelines. INJUSTICE.

Oh, it will not stand.

So now here's where we're at:
I'm in love with Yuan Jie
I'm mad that no one else loves Yuan Jie
I've decided it's my calling in life to defend his honor and restore his name
I have 2 papers to write about him

Which is all well and good except that I am also:
Being lazy and don't want to do research in Chinese

Which is a problem because:
90% of the people writing about the Tang Dynasty write in Chinese
98% of the the people writing about Yuan Jie write in Chinese

How will it all end? Will I gain the Mandate of Heaven? Will Yuan Jie be restored? Will I fail my classes? Stay tuned to find out!