Appendices and Endnotes

by William Dolby

  (ii) another name for the Tail Constellation (Wei-hsiu 尾宿).

  (iii) another name for the Winnowing-pan Constellation (Chi-hsiu 箕宿).

  (iv) another name for the Edible-gourd Constellation (Hu-hsiu 瓠宿).

  (v) a kind of pheasant. Anon. (Chou and Han dynasties), Close exegeses/standards (Erh-ya 爾雅), “Shih-niao”, says: “The han 鶾 [Phasianus pictus] means a Heaven Cock.”

  (vi) the name of insects:

  a) the same as han 螒, also called Nutgrass Flatsedge (Cyperus rotundus) Chicken (so-chi 莎雞),

  b) Ts’ui Pao 崔豹 (fl. ca. AD 300), Ancient and modern notes of China (Chung Hua ku-chin chu 中華古今注), says: “The kan-tieh 紺蝶 is also called ch’ing-ling 蜻蛉. The people of Liao-tung 遼東 call it kan-fan 紺幡. It’s also called t’ung-fan 童幡 and Heaven Chicken/ Cock. It tends to fly in swarms during the Seventh Month of the lunar year.”

  (vii) Jen Fang 任昉 (460 - 508), Recounting strange things (Shu-yi chi 述異記), says: “In the south-east there’s Mount Peach-tree Capital (T’ao-tu-shan 桃都山), up on which there’s a big tree called Peach-tree Capital (T’ao-tu 桃都). Its branches are three thousand miles apart from each other, and on the top of it there’s a Heaven Cock, and when the sun first comes out and shines on this tree, the Heaven Cock crows, and all the cocks in the whole world follow it by crowing.” A Records of Heaven is said to say “three hundred li-miles”. Ch’u Kuang-hsi 儲光羲 (fl. ca. AD 742), in his poem Inscribed on Sage-echoing Taoist Monastery (T’i Ying-sheng-kuan 題應聖觀), has the lines: “Heaven Cock plays its white feathers, Royal Mother dangles down her Origin Hair (Yüan-fa 元髮).”

  936Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Tu Mu 杜牧 [803 - 852].

  937Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Pai Chü-yi 白居易 [772 - 846].

  938Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Liu Ts’ang 劉滄 [fl. ca. AD 867].

  939Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Hsü Yin 徐夤 [fl. ca. AD 873].

  940Nan-nei 南內, Southern Inner-palace, Southern Inside/Interior, name of a palace, south-east of present-day Hsien-ning county in Shensi province. It’s the same as Rousing-celebration Palace (Hsing-ch’ing-kung 興慶宮), and was called Southern Interior because it was south of P’eng-lai Palace (also known as Great-shine Palace), known as the Eastern Interior. To start with it was just a residence of Emperor Dark-progenitor (Hsȕan-tsung 玄宗) before he’d acceded to the throne, but on becoming emperor he promoted it to the status of a palace.

  Ch’eng Ta-ch’ang 程大昌 (1123 - 1195) says: “Florescence-celebration Palace was in the south-east corner of the capital city, and it was from there that the monarch conducted his government, which is why it is also called Southern Interior.” He judges that, because of its relative inaccessibility to Great-shine Palace, it should really have just been considered a “tour-palace”. In the seventh lunar month in AD 756, the month after Emperor Dark-progenitor had fled for Szechwan, his crown-prince set himself up as emperor, known by posterity as the Emperor Solemn-progenitor (Su-tsung 肅宗), and “honoured” ex-ruler Emperor Dark-progenitor with the grand-sounding retirement title of Supreme Celestial Emperor. Dark-progenitor got back to Ch’ang-an in the twelfth lunar month, in AD 757. He first lived in Southern Interior, then later moved to live in Sweet-dew Palace-hall (Kan-lu-tien 甘露殿) in Western Palace.

  941Chang Yeh-hu 張野狐, Chang Wild-Country-Fox, the professional name of a singer and musician, former member of the imperial Pear-orchard Conservatoire, i.e. Chang Hui 張徽. He was the expert among the Young Gentlemen of the Conservatoire at playing the k’ung-hou 箜篌 harp. For this and other mentions of him, see Yȕeh Shih 樂史 (930 - 1007), Unofficial biography of Grand-truth (T’ai-chen wai-chuan 太真外傳).

  942ch’ing-shang 清商, Pure Shang (Music-treasury music). A kind of Music Treasury song (yȕeh-fu 樂府) tune was Pure-shang melody (Ch’ing-shang ch’ü 清商曲). Kuo Mao-ch’ien 郭茂倩 (Sung dynasty), Collection of the lyrics of Music Treasury songs (Yȕeh-fu shih-chi 樂府詩集), says: “Pure-shang Court-music (Ch’ing-shang yȕeh 清商樂) is also called Pure Court-music (Ch’ing-yȕeh 清樂), Pure Music being music surviving from the Nine Generations [i.e. a long time ago], at first being the same as the Three Tunes/ Modes of Mutual Harmony (Hsiang-he San-tiao 相和三調), together with old melodies from the Han and Wei dynasties, their wordings all being ancient tunes and ones composed by the Three Ancestors of Wei (Wei San-tsu 魏三祖).

  After the Tsin dynasty was scattered and transferred, its music was dispersed, When Emperor Filial-cultured (Hsiao-wen-ti 孝文帝, reigned 471 - 479) of the Northern Wei dynasty campaigned in the Huai and Han 淮、漢 regions, and Emperor Proclamation-warrior (Hsȕan-wu-ti 宣武帝, reigned 500 - 515) secured Shou-ch’un 壽春, they gathered in their musical entertainers (sheng-chi 聲伎), obtaining the old Central Plain (Chung-yȕan 中原, i.e. Northern China) melodies passed down in the Yangtse-left (Chiang-tso 江左, i.e. lower Yangtse basin) region, and the Wu songs (Wu-ke 吳歌) of the Yangtse-south (Chiang-nan 江南, i.e. eastern region south of the River Yangtse) and Western Music (Hsi-sheng 西聲) of Ching and Ch’u (Ching Ch’u 荆楚), and collectively called them Pure-shang Court-music.

  When the Ch’en and Liang dynasties were destroyed and fell into chaos, little of it survived, and that was obtained by the Sui dynasty when it quelled the Ch’en dynasty, the Sui setting up a Pure-shang Office/Bell-music Office (Ch’ing-shang-shu 清商署) to take charge of it, referring to it as Pure Court-music.

  During the reign-period 605 - 617 of the Sui dynasty, Emperor Yang-ti 煬帝 defined Pure Court-music and Western Liang (His-Liang 西涼) etc. as the Nine Orchestras (Chiu-pu 九部), and the fifteen musical instrumens of Pure Court-music were bells (chung 鍾), cymbals (p’an 磐), dulcimer (ch’in 琴), se-dulcimer (se 瑟), struck-dulcimer (chi-ch’in 擊琴), lute (p’i-p’a 琵琶), harp (k’ung-hou 箜篌), thirteen-string dulcimer (chu 筑), zither (cheng 箏), section-drum (chieh-ku 節鼓), mouth-harmonium (sheng 笙), transverse flute (ti 笛), panpipes (hsiao 簫), eight-holed flute (ch’ih 篪) and ocarina (hsȕn 塤).

  During the reign-period 627 - 649 of the T’ang dynasty, the Ten-orchestra Court-music (Shih-pu-yȕeh 十部樂) was employed, Pure Court-music also being one of the ten. Pure-shang Melodies used the Clasped-bells Fifth-pitchipe (chia-chung 夾鍾) for its kung-note (kung 宮), the Clasped-bells being half a note higher than the Grand-cluster Second-pitchpipe (T’ai-ts’u 太簇/ Ta-ts’u 大蔟/ T’ai-tsu 太族/ T’ai-ts’u 泰簇). It was originally called Pure-shang Yellow Bell (Huang-chung 黃鍾) being the mode (kung-tiao 宮調) of the kung-note, while the Grand-clusters was the shang-note, hence the term Pure-shang Melodies. They were divided into such as Wu-music Songs (Wu-sheng-ke 吳聲歌), Divine-strings Songs (Shen-hsien-ke 神弦歌), Western-melodies Songs (Hsi-ch’ü-ke 西曲歌), Yangtse-south Airs (Chiang-nan-nung 江南弄) and Cloud-mounting Court-music (Shang-yȕn-yȕeh 上雲樂)

  There was a tz’u-lyric tune-title Pure Shang repining (Ch’ing-shang yȕan 清商怨). Wang Yi-ch’ing 王奕清 (fl. ca. AD 1710) and others, Tz’u-lyric manual (Tz’u-p’u 詞譜), in AD 1715 on imperial commission, says: “Ancient Music Treasury songs (yȕeh-fu 樂府) included the lyrics to the Pure-shang Melody (Ch’ing-shang-ch’ü 清商曲), of which the music is often sad and repining, that being why such a title was chosen.

  Because Yen Shu’s 晏殊 (991 - 1055) tz’u-lyrics include one with the words ‘Pass-river sorrowful yearning’, Chou Pang-yen 周邦彥 (1056 - 1121) changed the title to Pass-river ditty (Kuan-he ling 關河令). It’s also called Shang-love repining (Shang-ch’ing yȕan 商情怨). The tune-title Plucking-fragrance lyric (Hsieh-fang tz’u 擷芳詞) was also called Pure-shang repining (Ch’ing-shang yȕan 清商怨), but was a different tune. It was also a ch’ü-aria tune-title, as a Southern Aria included among the Yȕeh Mode Main Arias (Yȕeh-tiao Cheng-ch’ü 越�
�正曲). Cf. Plucking-fragrance lyric.

  943Chu-lung 猪龍, Pig-dragon:

  When during the T’ang dynasty An Lu-shan was in attendance at a feast given by Emperor Dark-progenitor (Hsȕan-tsung 玄宗), he lay down drunk, and his body ch anged into a dragon’s, and his head into a pig’s. The courtiers informed the emperor of it. “This pig-dragon can’t achieve anything,” he said, and he never killed it. See Yȕeh Shih 樂史 (930 - 1007), Unofficial biography of Grand-truth (T’ai-chen wai-chuan 太真外傳).

  Pig-dragon was also the name of a spring/source, situated in Stone-buddha Garrison-town (Shih-fo-chen 石佛鎮) south of the present-day administrative city of Mei-shan county in Szechwan province. In the Sung dynasty, its territory was a summer property (pieh-yeh 别業) of the outstanding literary and political man Su Shih 蘇軾 (1036 - 1101), who once said: “A hundred years ago there was a female dragon crouching here, which transformed into two carps, namely the pig-dragon.” The spring’s name came from that.

  944 Li fu-jen 李夫人, Lady/Queen Li, a wife of Emperor Warrior (Wu-ti 武帝) of the Han dynasty, and a younger sister of Li Yen-nien 李延年 (fl. ca. 140 BC - ca. 87 BC), a favourite dancer, singer and musical expert in Emperor Wu’s court. Exquisite and charming, she gave birth to Prince Ai of Ch’ang-yi (Ch’ang-yi Ai-wang 昌邑哀王). She died early, and the emperor yearned endlessly for her. He had her portrait painted in his Sweet-spring Palace (Kan-ch’ȕan-kung 甘泉宮). The necromancer (fang-shih 方士) the Ch’i 齊 man Shao Weng 少翁 advised him that he, Shao Weng, was able to invoke her spirit, then set out lanterns and installed screens and curtains, and had the emperor gaze towards them from a distance from behind another screen, and the emperor saw a pretty woman resembling Queen Li there.

  945Li Shao-chȕn 李少君, name of a necromancer (fang-shih 方士), seemingly an error for Shao Weng 少翁. See preceding note.

  946Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Wu Jung 吳融 [AD? - ca. AD 903].

  947Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Lo Yin 羅隱 [833 - 909].

  948Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Fang-hu Chü-shih 方壺居士 [i.e. Wang Shen 汪莘, fl. ca. AD 1200].

  949Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Wei P’u 魏樸 [circa T’ang dynasty].

  950Yang T’ung-yu 楊通幽, Yang Mystery-accesser, the name of a “Taoist priest” necromancer (tao-shih 道士, 8th century AD), serving Emperor Dark-progenitor (Hsȕan-tsung 玄宗). The term tao-shih:

  i) a general appellation for “scholars/gentlemen who have acquired knowledge of cosmic law/ truth” (yu-tao chih-shih 有道之士). Tung Chung-shu 董仲舒 (circa. 179BC – circa. 104BC) (attr.), Springs-and-autumns’ luxuriant dew (Ch’un-ch’iu fan-lu 春秋繁露), says: “It’s said of the tao-shih of antiquity that if they wanted to avoid being offended against, they would firmly abide by one virtue.”

  ii) a term for a necromancer (fang-shih 方士). For instance, in the Han dynasty there was Hsi-men Chȕn-hui 西門君惠, who understood astrology and prophetic signs, and once said that Liu Hsiu 劉秀 would become Son of Heaven. Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), History of the [Former] Han (Han-shu 漢書), “Wang Mang chuan”, and Fan Yeh (398 - 445) and others, Latter Han history (Hou Han Shu 後漢書), “Kuang-wu-ti chi-lun”, both call him a tao-shih, but Huan T’an 桓譚 (?BC - ca. AD 25), New discourses (Hsin-lun 新論) calls him a fang-shih.

  iii) men who worshipped Taoism (tao-chiao 道教) were called tao-shih. Taoism took Sir Old (Lao-tzu 老子) as its progenitor or first ancestor, but before the Western Han dynasty there was no term tao-shih. Under the Former Han dynasty, Chang Liang 張良 (?BC - 185 BC) created Five-pecks-of rice Taoism (Wu-tou-mi Tao 五斗米道), but it was later people who first called his followers tao-shih. Towards the end of the Han dynasty, such as Yü Chi 于吉 and Tso Tz’u 左慈 were all of that ilk.

  iv) a term for Buddhists. Ullambana sutra exegeses (Yü-lan-p’en ching shu 盂蘭盆經疏) says: “When Buddhism spread to this region, Buddhist monks were called tao-shih,” Jottings on carrying out activities supplying-control record (Hsing-shih ch’ao tzu-ch’ih chi 行事鈔資持記) says: “Tao-shih was originally a euphemism for Buddhists (Shih-shih 釋氏), but was later wildly misappropriated and stolen by the Yellow Turban (Huang-chin 黃巾) [Taoistic rebels], and consequently no longer used for Buddhists.”

  951tao-t’ung 道童, lads/adolescent boys studying the Taoist cosmic truths.

  952Lin-ch’iung 臨邛, name of a mountain and county in present-day Ch’iung-lai county in Szechwan province. It’s elsewhere associated with another famous pair of lovers, Cho Fine-lady (Cho Wen-ch’ün 卓文君) eloping there to Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju 司馬相如 (179 BC-117 BC) during the Han dynasty.

  953Hung-tu 鴻都, Swan-goose/Vast/Splendid Capital. Said to have been the name of a library. Fan Yeh 范曄 (398-445) in his Latter Han history (Hou Han-shu 後漢書), “Ju-lin chuan”, says: “The various libraries of records and literary writing from Royal Learning-retreat/ National University (Pi-yung 辟雍), to Eastern Vista (Tung-kuan 東觀), Orchid Terrace (Lan-t’ai 蘭臺), Stone Building (Shih-shih 石室), Brightness-proclaiming (Hsuan-ming 宣明), and Hung-tu, they strove to scatter and split them all up.” The same work, “Ling-ti chi”, also says: “In the first year of the Light-harmony reign-period [i.e. AD 178], the Hung-tu School students [Hung-tu Hsȕeh-sheng 鴻都曄生) were first established.” A note to this says: “Hung-tu was the name of a gate, within which a school was set up. At the time, the various students in it were all ones who’d been recommended and summoned there by order of the prefectural and provincial authorities and the Three Dukes, and who were able at letter-writing and literary rhapsodies, and skilled at writing Bird Seal-script, a thousand of them being examined. Like the Royal Learning-retreat, Hung-tu was both a college and a library. It was the place where the Stone Classics (Shih-ching 石經) were set up.

  954Tan-t’ai 丹臺, Cinnabar Terrace, defined as Lien-tan-t’ai 鍊丹臺, Cinnabar-refining Terrace/Platform, a place where Taoist priests refined cinnabar, seeking to make an elixir of immortality. Conceivably a term coined by Hung Sheng. Lien-tan 煉丹/ 鍊丹, “to refine cinnabar”, refers to Taoist adepts’ (tao-che 道者) refining of Cinnabar Medicine/ Mixture (tan-yao 丹藥) to make an elixir of immortality. Chi K’ang 稽康 (223 - 262), Discourse answering difficult problems on nourishing longevity (Ta-nan yang-sheng lun 答難養生論), Crimson Axe (Ch’i-fu 赤斧) crimsoned his hair with refined cinnabar, and Sir Chȕan (Chȕan-tzu 涓子) extended his life a long while (chiu-yen 久延) by means of essence of atractylodes (chu-ching 朮精).” The “atractylodes” is either ts’ang-chu 蒼朮, the rhizome of Chinese atractylodes (Atractylodes chinensis) or pai-chu 白朮, the rhizome of large-headed atractylodes (Atractylodes macrocephala).

  The term tan-sha 丹砂, means “cinnabar”. The term tan-t’ien 丹田, “cinnabar field”, refers to the pubic region of the human body in techniques of cultivating long life It’s also used in traditional Chinese medicine, for main and collateral channels acupuncture points (ching-lo hsȕeh-wei 經絡穴位). The term tan-t’ien chih-ch’i 丹田之氣, “cinnabar field breath-energy”, refers to “deep breath controlled by the diaphragm”, also in longevity techniques.

  The term tan-fang 丹方, “Cinnabar Methods”, means the techniques by which Taoists refine cinnabar; Shen Yȕeh’s 沈約 (441 - 513) poem Mount Hua lodge (Hua-shan kuan 華山館) has the lines: “Cinnabar Methods seal the Cave Palace, which are only once passed on, when the Yellow River’s waters clear.”

  A similar term is tan-ch’ȕeh 丹訣, “cinnabar rhymed-formula”, also referring to Taoists’ methods of refining cinnabar. Yȕan Chen’s 元稹 (779 - 831) poem Spring moon (Ch’un-yȕeh 春月) has the lines: “In my mouth I hold secret cinnabar formulae, At the back of my elbow, I hang a green pouch.”

  The term tan-hsȕeh 丹穴, “cinnabar cave” has two meanings:

  i) a place name,

/>   ii) mountain caves from which cinnabar is excavated. Ssu-ma Ch’ien 司馬遷 (ca. 147 BC - 90 BC), Historians’ records (Shih-chi 史記), “Huo-chih chuan”, says: “The ancestors of a widow of Pa Shu 巴蜀, Purity (Ch’ing 清), had found a cinnabar cave and monopolised the profits of it for several generations.” A note to that says: “The cinnabar (tan) is tan-sha, and the ‘cave’ means a cave in a mountain valley which produces cinnabar.”

  The term tan-lü 丹侶, “cinnabar companion”, means a Taoist priest/adept (tao-shih 道士). He Ching-ming 何景明 (1483 - 1521), in his poem In the monastery of Taoist Shen of T’ien-t’an (T’ien-t’an Shen tao-shih kuan-chung 天壇沈道士觀中) has the lines: “At the mouth of the cave, I encountered a cinnabar companion, Amid the flowers, I got drunk on green-jade panpipes.”

  The term tan-yeh 丹液, “cinnabar liquid”, means the medicinal liquid concocted by Taoists by refining cinnabar, i.e. an elixir for longevity. Yang Chiung’s 楊炯 (AD? - AD 692) poem Attendant Gentleman Liu’s entering Lung-t’ang Taoist Monastery (Liu shih-lang ju Lung-t’ang-kuan 劉侍郎入隆唐觀) has the lines: “The necromancer cook’s cinnabar liquid, The transcendental brims his jade goblet.”

  The term tan-ching 丹經, Cinnabar scripture, refers to a scripture instructing how to refine cinnabar. Ke Hung 葛洪 (284 - 363), Biographies of immortals (Shen-hsien chuan 神仙傳), says: “So then the Eight Lords (Pa-kung 八公) called on the prince, and handed him Cinnabar scripture and Thirty-six water-methods (San-shih-liu shui-fang 三十六水方).”

  The term tan-ting 丹鼎, “cinnabar tripod-cauldron”, means the cooking vessel used by Taoists to refine cinnabar. Yi Shih-chen 伊士珍 (Yȕan dynasty) (dub. attr.), Record of God’s Library Cave-paradise (Lang-huan chi 瑯嬛記), says: “A tortoise which is a thousand years old, is able to reach the foot of Mount Erigeron-chenopodium (P’eng-lai-shan 蓬萊山), seek out the water used by immortals to wash cinnabar tripod-cauldrons, and imbibe it, thereupon growing wings, able to fly, and being unfathomably transformed [into immortality].”