Cf. the term Great Imperial-carriage (ta-chia 大駕).
811The text seems to be in error here. It says “present Sublime Emperor”, but surely Solemn-progenitor (Su-tsung) is meant.
812kao-miao 告廟, Informing the Royal/Imperial Ancestral Temple. In ancient times, both the Son of Heaven and Chou dynasty rulers of subordinate states, when they left their court and went elsewhere on business, would invariably inform/ announce it to (kao) their ancestral temple. and on their return go there and report (kao). Tso Ch’iu-ming 左丘明 (6th - 5th century BC?) (dub. attr.), Tso’s commentary (Tso-chuan 左傳), “Huan 2 nien”, says: “Whenever the Duke was going to travel, he informed his ancestral temple, and on his return would go there and drink wine, and cast aside his wine-cup (chȕeh 爵) and on bamboo writing-slips write a report of his good achievements, as was a ritual requirement.” Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), White-tiger Belvedere compendium (Pai-hu t’ung 白虎通), “Hsȕn-shou”, says: “Why is it that true-king rulers always have to Inform their Royal/Ancestral Temple? A filial son produces his statement … serving the dead as he serves the living.”
813Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Fang Kan 方干 [fl. ca. AD 860].
814Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by P’i Jih-hsiu 皮日休 [AD? - ca. AD 881].
815Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Tu Mu 杜牧 [803 - 852].
816Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Li Shang-yin 李商隱 [813 - 858].
817Li Mo 李漠 (8th century AD), the name of a famous flautist.
818Ch’ing-chung 青冢, Green Tomb, was the tomb of Wang Resplendent-lady (Wang Chao-chȕ 王昭君), situated south of present-day Huehot in Inner Mongolia, and said to be called T’e-mu-erh Wu-erh-hu 特木爾烏爾虎 in Mongol. The “Green” of its name derives, one source says, from the fact that the grass on it remains green, while the grass of the surrounding frontier region is all white, but another says: “When Resplendent-lady died, she was buried on the bank of the River Amur, and morning and evening there are sad clouds and bitter mists covering her tomb.”
Sung Lo 宋犖 (1634 - 1713) says: “There aren’t any plants or trees at the tomb. If you gaze at it from afar, you see in a blurred haze a very dark green colour, which is why it’s called Green Tomb.”
Chang Hsiang-wen 張相文 (20th century) has a more elaborate explanation: “Out beyond the frontier, there’s a lot of white sand, and the air makes it shine, and the mountains, forests, villages and mounds all without exception are barred across with blackish green in the air around them, as if they’ve been splashed with thick ink. Resplendent-lady’s tomb is caged with such a blur of mist and haze, that it can be seen from as far away as a score or more miles, which is why it’s called Green Tomb.”
This latter explanation would rule out the idea of green vegetation on the tomb.
819Tzu-yü 紫玉, Scarlet-jade”:
i) the name of a woman, also called Young/Little Jade (Hsiao-yu 小玉). Kan Pao 干寶 (fl. ca. AD 317), Searching out the supernatural (Sou-shen chi 搜神記), says: “The youngest daughter, Scarlet-jade, of King Fu-ch’a 夫差 [reigned 495 BC - 475 BC] of Wu 吳 took a fancy to the young lad Han Chung 韓重, and wanted to be married to him, but couldn’t, and choked to death. Han Chung was on a journey for study purposes, and on his return home learned of it, and went to mourn her beside her tomb. Scarlet-jade appeared in bodily form to him, and gave him the gift of a shining pearl, then stretched her neck and started singing a song. Han Chung tried to embrace her, but she disappeared like mist.”
Li Pai 李白 (701 - 762) has a poem with the lines: “On barbarian couch Scarlet-jade flute (Tzu-yu-ti 紫玉笛), Withdrawing from her seat, crying to the blue [clouds] sky.”
Later ages, referred to a young woman’s passing away as “Scarlet-jade becoming mist” (Tzu-yü ch’eng-yen 紫玉成煙).
ii) meaning “scarlet bamboo” (tzu-chu 紫竹), Bambusa nana var. gracillima, sections of which are often used by people to make vertical and horizontal flutes (hsiao-ti 簫笛), so such flutes are often referred to as Scarlet-jades. Ch’en Lü 陳旅 (1288 - 1343) has a poem with the line: “The immortal lady rides a roc, and blows her Scarlet-jade.”
As for “Little-jade”:
i) Pai Chü-yi 白居易 (772 - 846) has a poem with the lines: “The Wu bewitcher Little-jade flew and became mist, The Yȕeh 越 gorgeous-one West Shih (Hsi Shih 西施) was transformed into soil.” A note to that says: “Little-jade is the name of a daughter of Fu-ch’a.”
ii) the name of a famous female entertainer (chi 妓) of the reign-period 766 - 779 of the T’ang dynasty. Her surname was originally Huo 霍, she being the daughter of a bond-maid Clean-grasp/-perseverance (Ching-ch’ih 淨持) married/favoured-in-love by the Prince of Huo (Huo-wang 霍王). She was full and gorgeous of figure. When the Prince of Huo died, she was sent to live in outside society, and changed her surname to Cheng 鄭. She was conversant with poetry and calligraphy, and skilled at music, and loved the poetry of the Presented Scholar (chin-shih 進士) Li Yi 李益 (ca. 749 - ca. 827). Through the introduction of Eleventh-maiden Pao (Pao Shih-yi-niang 鮑十一娘), she became acquainted with him, and their love became most ardent, they vowing never to abandon each other.
Later, Li Yi turned his back on her, and, her accumulated yearning for him made her ill. A ‘yellow-smocked visitor” [i.e. handsome young dandy nobleman] (huang-shan-k’e 黃衫客) marched Li Yi to her, and, after weeping brokenly for a long while, she died.
820ts’ang-sang 滄桑, “green/dark blue and mulberry-tree”, i.e. to experience mighty political upheavals/vicissitudes, an abbreviation of the term ts’ang-hai sang-t’ien滄海桑田, “dark-blue sea and mulberry-tree farm-fields”. Cf. ts’ang-hai shih 滄海事,” (dark) blue sea happenings”. The characters ts’ang 滄, ts’ang 蒼 and ts’ang 倉are often interchangeable, and sometimes designate quite varying colours. Tung-fang Sho 東方朔 (ca. 161 BC - ca. 87 BC) (attr., but probably by anon. Six Dynasties author), Ten islands (Shih-chou chi 十洲記), says: “Blue-sea Island (Ts’ang-hai-tao 滄海島) is in the middle of the North Sea (Pei-hai 北海), and the water is all a bluish-grey/ grey/ dark green/ grass colour (ts’ang-se 蒼色), and the immortals call it the Dark-blue/ Bluish-grey Sea (Ts’ang-hai 滄海).”
This clearly takes ts’ang 滄 as meaning ts’ang 蒼, the colour. There’s also the expression “bluish-grey sea and mulberry-tree farm-fields” (ts’ang-hai sang-t’ien 滄海桑田). Ke Hung 葛洪 (284 - 363), Biographies of immortals (Shen-hsien chuan 神仙傳), says: “Ma-ku 麻姑 said to Wang Fan-p’ing 王方平: ‘Since I took up attendance, I’ve already seen the East Sea (Tung-hai 東海) three times become mulberry-tree fields. Recently when I went to Erigeron-chenopodium (P’eng-lai 蓬萊) paradise isle, the water was shallow, shallower than in the past, and it may frequently be about half its full depth. Surely it’s not going to return to being raised land again, is it!’”
Later ages took this phrase “bluish-grey sea and mulberry-tree fields”, or just the term “blue-grey and mulberry-trees” (ts’ang-sang 滄桑), as a term for “speedy upheaval/vast change in the world’s affairs”.
821Nü-chen-kuan 女貞觀, Female-chastity Taoist Convent.
822Chin-ling 金陵, Gold Mound, being an ancient name for Nanking, situated in the area of present-day Nanking city and Chiang-ning county in Kiangsu province. In the Warring States period of the Chou dynasty, the state of Ch’u 楚 set up a Chin-ling-yi 金陵邑 there. In the Eastern Tsin dynasty, it was called Gold City (Chin-ch’eng 金城). In the T’ang dynasty, in AD 620, Chiang-ning 江寧 was renamed Kui-hua 歸化, and then in AD 625 Kui-hua was renamed Chin-ling, and the following year Chin-ling was renamed Pai-hsia 白下.
823Hua-shan 華山, Mount Hua, i.e. the Great Hua (T’ai Hua 太華), also called Great Mount Hua (T’ai Hua-shan 太華山), i.e. Mount Hua (Hua-shan), south of present-day Hua-yin county, and south-west of T’ung-kuan count
y, in Shensi province, the western of the Five Sacred Peaks (Wu Yȕeh 五嶽) of China. This Western Sacred-peak (Hsi Yȕeh 西嶽) has various peaks on it, the central one being Lotus-flower Peak (Lien-hua-feng 蓮花峰), an eastern one being Immortal’s Palm (Hsien-jen-chang 仙人掌, the modern word for “cactus”), and a western one being Alighting-wild geese Peak (Lo-yen-feng 落雁峰), the three constituting the Three Peaks of Hua Yȕeh (Hua Yȕeh San-feng 華嶽三峰). Others of its peaks include Cloud-terrace Peak (Yun-t’ai-feng 雲臺峰), Princess Peak (Kung-chu-feng 公主峰) and Feathered-woman/ Hairy-woman Peak (Mao-nü-feng 夫女峰). As a line by Tu Fu 杜甫 (712 - 770) says: “All its peaks are spread out and lined up like sons and grandsons.”
824ch’ing-fu 青蚨, green fu-bug, a slang term for “copper coin”. The term ch’ing-fu also has the synonym “fish-earl” (yü-po 魚伯). Liu An 劉安 (?BC - 122 BC), Sir Huai-south (Huai-nan Tzu 淮南子), “Wan-pi shu”, mentionss: “Returning coins with green fu-bugs (ch’ing-fu huan-ch’ien 青蚨還錢)”. A note to that says: “Placing the young and mothers of them [the fu-bugs] of all stages in an earthenware vat, one buries it at the foot of the Female Rampart going east. After three days one opens it up again, and immediately follows that up by daubing eighty-one coins with the blood of the mothers and another eighty-one coins with the blood of the young. When one alternates the coins in a purchase, placing down a ‘young coin’ then employing a ‘mother coin’, placing down a ‘mother coin’, then employing a ‘young coin’, all the coins will come back to one.”
Kan Pao 干寶 (fl. ca. AD 317), Searching out the supernatural (Sou-shen chi 搜神記), 13, has a similar, slightly longer account:
In the Southern Region, there’s an insect called tun-yü 蜳 [虫 on left, 禺 on right], another name for it being called tse-chu [虫 on left, 則 on right]蠋, and further known as ch’ing-fu. It looks like a cicada, but slightly bigger, and is edible, its taste being pungent and fine. When it bears young, they unfailingly cleave to the leaf of a plant, and are as big as silkworms. When one tries to pick up the young, the mother is bound straightway to come flying, no matter whether from nearby or far away, and even if one stealthily takes the young away, the mother is certain to know where they are. If one daubs eighty-one coins with blood of the mothers, and daubs eighty-one coins with blood of the young, whenever one purchases things, sometimes first using the ‘mother’ coins’, sometimes first using the ‘young’s coins’, they’ll all come flying back to one again, in endless circulation. Sir Huai-south, “Wan-pi shu”, calls returning coins “green fu-bugs”.
Li Fang 李昉 (925 - 996) and others, Great Peace imperial survey (T’ai-p’ing yü-lan 太平御覽), cites the Sir Huai-south version, and similar versions from Hsü Chien 徐堅 (659 - 729), Records for early learning (Ch’u-hsȕeh chi 初學記), [produced ca. AD 700] and Li Fang 李昉 (925 - 996) and others, Great Peace extensive records (T’ai-p’ing kuang-chi 太平廣記) (AD 977).
825huang-chin-tien 黃金殿, Yellow-gold Palace-hall, a poetic euphemism for “imperial palace-hall”.
826t’u-t’an 塗炭: “mud and charcoal”. This term has in general two implications:
i) privation, hardship, utter misery, great affliction, wretched suffering. K’ung Ch’iu 孔丘 (551 BC - 479 BC) (ed.), History classic (Shu-ching 書經), “Li-cheng Chung Hui chih-kao”, says: “the common people fell into mud and charcoal”, which an early commentary explains as “The common people were in such dire peril, it was as if they’d got trapped in mud and fallen into a fire.”;
ii) filth. Meng K’e 孟軻 (372 BC - 289 BC), Sir Mencius (Meng-tzui 孟子), “Kung-sun Ch’ou”, says: “Standing in service in an evil ruler’s court, and counselling an evil ruler, is like sitting clad in court robes and court hat in the middle of mud and charcoal.”
The first meaning is the one meant here.
827Liu-fu Hsiang-ch’ȕn 六幅湘裙, Six-hems River Hsiang Skirts, being the name of a garment.
828i.e. always continue able to feel the beautiful as beautiful no matter how familiar. Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Pao Jung 鮑溶 [fl. ca. AD 813].
829i.e. woman’s hair-jewels, i.e. beautiful woman.
830Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Lu Lun 盧綸 [fl. ca. AD 773].
831i.e. the brocade stocking.
832Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Li Yi 李益 [ca. 749 - ca. 827].
833Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Sung Chih-wen 宋之問 [AD? - ca. AD 713].
834Wan-li-ch’iao 萬里橋, Ten-thousand-mile Bridge, the name of a bridge south of present-day Hua-yang county in Shensi province. During the Three Kingdoms period, when the important minister Fei Yi 費禕 (AD? - AD 253) was going to go on an embassy to the state of Wu, Chu-ke Liang 諸葛亮 [181 - 234] held a Sacrificial-service to the Road-god for him, and said: “Your ten-thousand-mile journey begins at this bridge.” The bridge’s name derives from that. Tu Fu’s 杜甫 (712 - 770) thatched hermitage was to the west of this bridge, and he also has the poetry line: “One thatched hermitage west of Ten-thousand-mile bridge”.
835Yeh-t’ai 夜臺, Night Terrace, being a term for the Yellow Springs of afterlife, Hades, alternatively explained as “grave-pit”. Li Pai 李白 (701 - 762) has a poem Weeping for master-brewer Patriarch Chi (K’u shan-niang Chi-sou 哭善釀紀叟), which has the lines: “There’s no dawn of day on Night Terrace, whom do you sell your wine to!” A note to that says: “Lu Chi 陸機 [261 - 303] has a poem with the line: ‘Seeing you off to Enduring-night Terrace (Ch’ang-yeh-t’ai 長夜臺).’ Li Chou-han 李周翰 [early 8th century AD] gives a note: ‘Once the grave is closed, one no longer sees the bright light, so there’s talk of Enduring-night Terrace, which is the basis for later people’s term Night Terrace.’”
Li Pai also has a poem Weeping for master-brewer Patriarch Chi of Hsȕan City (K’u Hsȕan-ch’eng shan-niang hi-sou 哭宣城善釀紀叟), goes:
Patriarch Chi down by Hades’ Yellow Springs,
Still brews Old Spring Wine, you can be
sure;
But that Night Terrace is lacking Li Pai,
So how can he do any trade any more?
Juan Yü 阮禹 (AD? - AD 212), in his poem Seven lamentations (Ch’i-ai 七哀), has the lines: “Dark dark are the palaces of the Nine Springs, Endless is Enduring-night Terrace.”
836As she’s now an immortal and no longer a spirit.
837T’ai-yin Lien-hsing Chih-shu 太陰鍊形之術, Grand Female-force Body-refining Arts, presumably some supernatural arts or techniques for changing the nature of one’s physical form, in quest of immortality. Refining the Body (lien-hsing 鍊形) is a Taoist term. Ou-yang Hsüan 歐陽玄 (1273 - 1357) and others, Sung history (Sung-shih 宋史), “Chen Ch’i-chen chuan 甄棲貞傳”, says: “When she was seventy-five [74] years old, she encountered Hsü Yȕan-yang 許元陽, who told her: ‘You have a breezy spirit and fine remarkability, and, even though old, can still become an immortal.’ And then he handed her a rhymed formula for Refining One’s Body and Cultivating One’s Original Nature (Hsiu-Yȕan 修元).”
838P’eng-lai Hsien-yȕan 蓬萊仙院, Erigeron-chenopodium Paradise Immortals-convent.
839Shang-ti 上帝:
i) God Above, Supreme God, God, i.e. the God/Emperor of Heaven (T’ien-ti 天帝). Anon. (early and mid 1st millennium BC), Songs classic (Shih-ching 詩經), no 236, verse 7 lines 5 - 6, are: “God Above is gazing down upon you: Be faithful in your hearts to no other cause but ours!”
Anon. (late Chou or early Han dynasty) (ed.), Filial-affection classic (Hsiao-ching 孝經), has the words: “An ancestral sacrificial service to King Civility was held in the Shining Hall, to placate God Above.”
ii) Former World-ruler, a term referring to the demi-god world-rulers of antiquity. K’ung Ch’iu 孔丘 (551 BC - 479 BC) (ed.), History classic (Shu-ching 書經), “Li-cheng”, says: “… honouring the Former World-ruler.” Here
the term refers to Yü-ti Shun 虞帝舜, a Wu-ti-chi ruler, traditionally reigned 2255 BC - 2206 BC, in general simply known as Shun or Yü-shun.
iii) a Christian term for God.
840Yü-yin 玉音, Jade Sound:
i) a term for a king’s or ruler’s pronouncement. Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju 司馬相如 (179 BC - 117 BC), Tall-gate rhapsody (Ch’ang-men fu 長門賦), has the lines:” I pray I may be granted a question and present myself, oh, And obtain my esteemed ruler’s Jade Sound.”
ii) a euphemistic term for another’s words. Hsieh Chuang 謝莊 (421 - 466), Moon rhapsody (Yȕeh-fu 月賦), has the lines: “I respectfully wear at my waist Jade Sounds, and take them unsatedly.”
Anon. (early and mid 1st millennium BC), Songs classic (Shih-ching 詩經), no 186, verse 4, lines 3 - 4, are: “Don’t treat your news (yin 音) as gold or jade, or feel you must keep your distance.” Commenting on that, Ch’en Huan 陳奐 (1786 - 1863), Mr. Mao’s passed-down explanations of “Songs” (Shih Mao-shih ch’uan-shu 詩毛氏傳疏), says: “It means that a noble-minded person’s virtuous voice is like gold or jade.” That must be the basis for the term.
iii) K’ung Ch’iu 孔丘 (551 BC - 479 BC) (ed.), History classic (Shu-ching 書經), “Ta-chuan”, says: “One thousand seven hundred and seventy-three rulers of subordinate states all without exception bow like a xylophone and [utter/ render] Jade Sounds.” A note to that says: “Jade Sounds means vast ceasing tunes.”
iv) Li Pai 李白 (701 - 762) in his poem Listening to Imperial Attendant Han’s playing of the flute (T’ing Han shih-yü ch’ui-ti 聽韓侍御吹笛) has the line: “Miserably flow the Jade Sounds.” This refers to the high pure sounds of the flute. T’ao Ch’ien 陶潛 (372 - 427) has a poem with the line: “The divine roc tunes its Jade Sounds.” In this case, it means the pleasant harmonious calls of birds.
Appendices and Endnotes Page 44