The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (simplified Chinese: 施氏食狮史; traditional Chinese: 施氏食獅史; pinyin: Shī Shì shí shī shǐ) is a 92-character modern poem written in Classical Chinese by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), in which every syllable has the sound shi (in different tones) when read in modern Mandarin Chinese. It is a famous example of constrained writing. The sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is an example of this type of writing in English.
The text, although written in Classical Chinese, can be easily comprehended by most educated readers. However, changes in pronunciation over 2,500 years resulted in a large degree of homophony in Classical Chinese, so the poem becomes completely incomprehensible when spoken in Modern Standard Chinese or when written in romanization.
Read more about Lion-Eating Poet In The Stone Den: The Text, Explanation, Poem Text in Vernacular Chinese, Classical Chinese Pronunciation in Antiquity, Related Tongue-twisters
Famous quotes containing the words poet, stone and/or den:
“The poet is he who can write some pure mythology today without the aid of posterity.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God. I plead not for the suppression of reason, but for a due recognition of that in us which sanctifies reason.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)
“Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.””
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 19:45,46.