Appendices and Endnotes

by William Dolby

  980Yȕeh-tu 岳瀆, Sacred-peak Ditch. The name of some waterway.

  981Ssu-feng 司風, Master Wind, god of wind.

  982Ssu-huo 司火, Master Fire, god of fire.

  983Ssu-lei 司雷, Master Thunder, god of thunder.

  984Ssu-tien 司電, Master Lightning, god of lightning.

  985Chih-shih 值時, Hour Officer, a quasi-official-sounding post.

  986Chih-jih 值日, Day Officer, a quasi-official-sounding post.

  987Chih-yȕeh 值月, Month Officer, a quasi-official-sounding post.

  988Chih-nien 值年, Year Officer, Annual-duty Officer, sometimes found as a prefix to some mandarin posts.

  989T’ien-feng 天風, Heaven’s Wind.

  990fa-ku 法鼓, dharma-drum, Drum of the Law. A term for a big drum used in Buddhist monasteries, “Stirring all to advance in virtue”.

  991Ch’ing-shih-k’u 青獅窟, Green-lion Grotto.

  992T’an-lin 檀林, Sandalwood Forest.

  993Hsi T’ien-chu 西天竺, India in the West, a name for India.

  994yȕeh-cho 鸑鷟, yȕeh-cho phoenix, the name of birds:

  i) a synonym for “phoenix” (feng 鳳). Tso Ch’iu-ming 左丘明 (6th-5th century BC?) (dub. attr.), Discussions of the states (Kuo-yü 國語), “Chou-yü”, says: “When the Chou dynasty arose, a yȕeh-cho sang on Mount Ch’i (Ch’i-shan 岐山).” A note to that in Wei Chao 韋昭 (204 - 273), Elucidations of “Discussions of the states” (Kuo-yü chieh 國語解), says: “Yȕeh-cho is another name for ‘phoenix’.”

  ii) the name of kind of water bird. Hsü Shen 許慎 (30 - 124), Explaining writing and elucidating characters (Sho-wen chieh-tzu 說文解字), produced in AD 100, says: “Out on the River Yangtse there’s the yȕeh-cho, which is like the wild-duck (fu 鳧), but bigger, with crimson eyes.”

  Ssu-ma Ch’ien 司馬遷 (ca. 145 BC - ca. 85 BC), Historians’ records (Shih-chi 史記), “Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju chuan”, mentions a “shu-yü 鸀鳿”. Chang Shou-chieh 張守節 (T’ang dynasty), Establishing proper meanings in “Historians’ records” (Shih-chi cheng-yi 史記正義), cites Kuo 郭 as saying on that it was: “Like a duck, but bigger with a long neck and crimson eyes.” So the shu-yü was perhaps the same as the yȕeh-cho.

  995ch’an-ts’an 蟬蠶, silkworm-cicada. Tuan Ch’eng-shih 段成式 (AD? - AD 863), Miscellaneous sacrificial vessels of Yu-yang (Yu-yang tsa-tsu 酉陽雜俎), scroll 1, says: “Chiao-chih [North Vietnam] sent borneol as tribute to the imperial court, the borneol being shaped like a silkworm-cicada, and in Persia it’s said that it’s only found in the nodules of old borneol trees. In the imperial-palace forbidden precincts it’s called ‘auspicious borneol.’ The emperor bestowed it solely upon Most-prized-empress Yang, giving her ten pieces of it.”

  996jui lung-nao 瑞龍腦, “auspicious borneol”. I.e. lung-nao 龍腦, “dragon brain”, Borneol or Borneo camphor, from the trunk of the Dragon-brain Tree (lung-nao-shu 龍腦樹) of Sumatra, Borneo, etc., the trunk being cut into fine strips or flakes (p’ien 片), which are steamed and cooled. Various further methods of preparation produce a milder substance than camphor proper, and it can be used either as a perfume or as a medicine. It’s also known as Flake Brain (p’ien-nao 片腦), and Ice Flake (ping-p’ien 冰片), the better quality kind being called Plum-blossom Flake (mei-p’ien 梅片). In recent times, what has been sold in medicine shops as Dragon Brain or Flake Brain has often actually been refined camphor proper (chang-nao 樟腦).

  997P’o-ssu-kuo 波斯國, state/country of Persia.

  998Surely should be ‘Western’.

  999Tung-yang 東洋, Eastern Ocean. Surely it should be ‘Western’!

  1000Ch’ing-wei 清微, Pure Obscurity/Faintness, a name for the sky or layer of it.

  1001Chen-hsȕan 真玄, True Darkness.

  1002Yu-ming 幽明, Dark and Shine/Light/Brightness:

  i) Anon. (6th century BC or earlier), Changes classic (Yi-ching 易經), “Hsi-tz’u”, says: “For that reason, one understands the cause of Dark and Light.” A note to that says: “The Dark and Light are images for visible and invisible.”

  ii) A term for the Shades (of afterlife) and the mortal world. Yang Lien 楊漣 (1572 - 1625), Essay for a sacrificial service to Chao Wo-pai (Chi Chao Wo-pai wen 祭趙我白文), says: “You master were born affectionate and righteous, but you’re far as the rivers and mountains, and so have become cut off forever from us as the Shades from the Light.”

  iii) a term meaning good and evil. K’ung Ch’iu 孔丘 (551 BC - 479 BC), (ed.), History classic (Shu-ching 書經), “Shun-tien”, says: “Elevating and dismissing Dark and Light.” Commentray to that says: “Dismissing those who are Dark, and elevating/ promoting those who are Light.”

  iv) terms meaning female and male. Tai Te 戴德 (1st century BC) (compiler), Elder Tai’s “Rites record” (Ta Tai “Li-chi” 大戴禮記), “Kao-chih”, says: “Light means elder, and Dark means infant. Light and Dark (ming-yu 明幽) means female and male.”

  1003Lao Ch’ü-t’an 老瞿曇, Old Ch’ü-t’an. Ch’ü-t’an was the surname of the family of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, so is often used to refer to him. The surname is also found transliterated as Chü-t’an 俱/ 具曇 and Ch’iao-ta-mo 喬答摩. Ch’ü-t’an Immortal (Ch’ü-t’an-hsien 瞿曇仙) was a term for an ancient rsi, said to have been the founder of the Buddha’s clan. Ch’ü-t’an Seng-ka-t’i-p’o 瞿曇僧伽提婆 is a transliteration of Gautama-sanghadeva, the name of a native of Kabul, who translated several Buddhist works during the years 383 - 398. Ch’ü-t’an-mi 瞿曇彌, a transliteration of Gautami/ Gotami, was the feminine form of Gautama, used especially to refer to Sakyamuni’s aunt and nurse, who was also known as Mahaprajapati (Ta-ai-tao 大愛道/ Mo-he-po-she-po-t’i 摩訶波闍波提), said to have been the first woman received into the Buddhist order. Ch’ü-t’an (Pan-jo)-liu-chih 瞿曇般若留/流支 was a transliteration of Gautama-prajnaruci, a man from Benares who translated some eighteen Buddhist works during the years 538 - 543. Ch’ü-t’an Ta-mo-she-na 瞿曇達摩闍那 was a transliteration of Gautama-dharmadjnana, also rendered as Ch’ü-t’an Fa-chih 瞿曇法智, (son of Gautama-prajnaruci), who in AD 582 translated a work on karma. Ts’ao Po-ch’i 曹伯啟 (1255 - 1333) has a poem with the lines: “The Buddhist monastery in my eyes is like a comb, How can you realise there’s no insightful Gautama!”

  1004Chia-yeh 迦葉, Kasyapa, also found transliterated as Chia-she(-po) 迦攝(波):

  i) a class of divine beings similar or equal to Prajapati.

  ii) the name of the father of gods, demons, men, fish, reptiles and all animals.

  iii) The name of a constellation.

  iv) dubiously said to mean “drinking light”, meaning swallowing the sun and moon.

  v) the name of one of the seven or ten sages of ancient India.

  vi) the name of a tribe or people.

  vii) i.e. Kasyapa Buddha, the third of the five Buddhas of the present kalpa, the sixth of the seven ancient Buddhas.

  viii) i.e. Mahakasyapa, a brahman of Magadha, who became one of the main disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni, and after the Buddha’s death came to be leader of the disciples convoked and directed by the first synod, from which derived his title Arya Sthavira (Shang-tso上坐 in Chinese). He’s considered the chief of the ascetics before the Enlightenment, the first compiler of the Buddhist canon, and the first patriarch.

  ix) one of five Kasyapas who were disciples of the Buddha: Maha-Kasyapa, Uruvilva-Kasyapa, Gaya-Kasyapa, Nadi-Kasyapa, and Dasabala-Kasyapa, the second, third and fourth said to have been brothers.

  x) a bodhisattva whose name heads a chapter of Nirvana sutra.

  xi) i.e. Chia-yeh Mo-t’eng 迦葉摩騰, Kasyapa-Matanga, the name of a Buddhist monk who, with Gobharana, or Dharmaraksa (i.e. Chu Fa-lan 竺法蘭), brought images and scriptures to China, with the commissioners sent by Emperor Shining (Ming-ti 明帝), arriving in Loyang 洛陽 in AD 67.

  One account says that a king gave Sakyamuni a present of a gold-coloured po-lo
flower (po-lo-hua 波羅花, presumably the same as po-lo-she-hua 波羅奢華, Palasa, the Sanskrit term for, leaf, petal, foliage, the blossom of Butea frondosa. This latter is a tree with red blossoms, and a sap that’s used to make a dye. The tree’s (sap’s) said to be black before sunrise, red during the daytime, and yellow after sunset.), and asked him to expound the dharma. Sakyamuni, the Buddha, “took the flower between his thumb and finger, and showed it to the multitude”, none of whom knew what they should do, only the Buddha’s disciple Maha-Kasyapa correctly responding with a slight smile, because of which Sakyamuni at once conveyed to him the gift of a “Buddhist-doctrine-correcting Eye-basket/ -collection” (cheng-fa yen-tsang 正法眼藏).

  The term Chia-yeh-yi 迦葉遺 (also given as the transliterations Chia-yeh-p’i 迦葉毘, Chia-yeh-wei 迦葉維, Chia-yeh-po 迦葉波, Chia-yeh-pi-yeh 迦葉臂耶 and He-shih-pei-yü 訶尸悲與), Kasyapiya, was the name of a school formed on the division of the Mahasanghikah into five schools a century after the Nirvana one.

  1005Of the congregation listening to his sermon, only Kasyapa was able to understand his point, the rest being puzzled and at a loss.

  1006T’ien-nü 天女, Heaven-maiden:

  i) another name for the star Weaving-damsel (Chih-nü 織女).

  ii) Devakanya/apsaras/Buddhist goddesses in general, attendants of the regents of the sun and moon; wives of Ghandharvas. Vimalakirti-nirdesa sutra (Wei-mo-chieh ching 維摩詰經), “Kuan chung-sheng p’in”, says: “At the time in Vimalakirti’s house there was a Heaven-maiden, who on meeting the various great men and hearing their expositions of the dharma, at once manisfested her person.” Here the Heaven-maiden was a female of the Desire-world Heaven/ Kamadhatu (Yü-chieh-t’ien 欲界天). According to Buddhist scriptures, in the various heavens above Form Heaven/ Rupadhatu (Se-chieh 色界) there are no lascivious desires, for which reason there are no male or female there.

  The Buddha once commanded his major disciple Manjusri (Wen-shu 文殊) to inquire after the great Lay-Buddhist Vimalakirti (Wei-mo-chieh 維摩詰), who was ill. Apsaras (t’ien-nü 天女) strewed flowers in his house, the flowers sticking to people who were shallow in their knowledge of Buddhist doctrine.

  1007Wei-mo 維摩, i.e. Wei-mo-chieh 維摩詰, Vimalakirti, meaning “of undefiled or spotless reputation” (ching-ming 淨名), also found transliterated as Wei-mo-lo-chieh 維摩羅詰 and P’i-mo-lo-chieh 毘摩羅詰, the name of a major Kulapati (chü-shih 居士) (a householder who practises Buddhism at home without becoming a monk) during the life of the historical Buddha, and said to have visited China.

  The famous poet Wang Wei 王維 (701 - 761) took Wei-mo as his courtesy-name, likening himself to Vimalakirti. Vimalakirti-sutra (Wei-mo ching 維摩經) is the name of a Buddhist scripture, with the fuller titles Vimalakirti sutra (Wei-mo-chieh ching 維摩詰經) and Vimalakirti-nirdesa sutra (Wei-mo-chieh so-sho ching 維摩詰所說經), of which there are three:

  i) the one translated by the famous translator Kumarajiva (Chiu-mo-lo-shih 鳩摩羅什),

  ii) the one translated by Wu Chih-ch’ien 吳支謙,

  iii) the one translated by Emperor Dark-progenitor (Hsȕan-tsung 玄宗) of the T’ang dynasty.

  Kumarajiva’s, in three scrolls, has been the most current.

  1008When Sakyamuni Buddha once sent his main student the wise Manjusri (Wen-shu 文殊) to ask after the ill Vimalakirti, apsaras strewed flowers in the latter’s house, the flowers sticking to those men whose understanding of Buddha’s principles was shallow, thus testing the validity of Vimalakirti’s teaching and influence. So this line is saying that the flowers offered up must not be strewn for any such end.

  1009Lang-yȕan 閬苑, Tall-/High-gate(s)/Clear-bright/Empty-and-vast Park/Hunting-park.

  i) the name of a paradise where immortals dwell. Sequel to “Biographies of immortals” (Hsü “Hsien-chuan” 續仙傳), “Yin Ch’i-ch’i chuan”, says: “This flower has already been over a hundred years in the mortal world, and before long will depart and return to High-gate Park.” Li Shang-yin 李商隱 (813 - 858) has a poem with the line: “Erigeron Island’s (P’eng-tao 蓬島) mists and roseate clouds, and High-gate Park’s bells.”

  ii) the name of a park during the T’ang dynasty. Wang Hsiang-chih 王象之 (Sung dynasty), Records of the scenic spots of Earth (Yü-ti chi-sheng 輿地紀勝), says: “At the beginning of the T’ang dynasty, Ling-k’ui Prince of Lu (Lu-wang Ling-k’ui 魯王靈夔) and Yȕan-ying Prince of T’eng (T’eng-wang Yȕan-ying 滕王元嬰) were in succession governors of Lang-chou 閬州, and, the buildings of their administrative offices being humble and mean, they made them vastly bigger and more imposing by building and decorating them, imitating the imperial-palace hunting-park, and calling it Exalted Hunting-park (Lung-yȕan 隆苑), which later on, in order to avoid the taboo-name of Shining August-emperor [the emperor Hsȕan-tsung 玄宗, reigned 712 - 756] (Li Lung-chi 李隆基), had its name changed to Tall-gate Hunting-park. In it there were five citadels. When Sung Te-chih 宋德之was governor there, he further built a Dark-green-jade Tower (Lü-yü-lou 綠玉樓) in the south-west corner of the western citadel, it also being called Twelfth Tower (Shih-erh-lou 十二樓), by doing so completing the superb scenic aura of High-gate Hunting-park.”

  1010huai-meng 懷夢, “Dream-cherishing”, being the name of a type of plant.

  1011ch’iung-t’ien 瓊田, chalcedon-field(s) [of immortals’ paradise], a euphemistic reference to the (farm-)lands of paradise.

  1012hsien shen-ch’i 顯神奇, to manifest (my) divine and wondrous. The shen-ch’i 神奇, “the divine and the wondrous”, is a term found in Chuang Chou 莊周 (368 BC - 286 BC), Sir Chuang (Chuang-tzu 莊子), says: “Thus what he admires is divine wonder, and what he loathes is the stinky and rotten. And what’s stinky and rotten further tsansform into the divine and the wondrous, and the divine and the wondrous transform into the stinky and the rotten.”

  1013heng-wu 蘅蕪, “wild-ginger weed/ grass.”, being the name of a kind of fragrant perfume. Wang Chia 王嘉 (AD? - ca. AD 324), Picking up what’s been lost (Shih-yi chi 拾遺記); says: “When the emperor [Emperor Warrior, Wu-ti 武帝, reigned 140 BC - 87 BC] rested in Extending-coolnesss Palace, he lay down to sleep and dreamed Queen Li handed him some wild-ginger-weed perfume. The emperor was startled awake, and got up, and found that the scent clung to his clothes and pillow, as it did for month after month without cease.” Heng by itself means “wild-ginger” (Asarum blumei). Here the “wild-ginger weed” means ‘some kind of perfume’ that can bring the souls of the dead back to life.

  1014ling-kuang 靈光, a term for:

  i) “spirit/supernatural light”. Ch’en Shou 陳壽 (233 - 297), Three Kingdoms records (San-kuo chih 三國志), “Shu-chih”, “Hsien-chu chi”, says: “His royal seal sank in the River Han, lying face down in the deep-pool source, sunny shining and candle-blazing, its supernatural light beaming right up to the heavens.”

  ii) a Buddhist term signifying “the supernatural bright light that everybody inherently has in them”. Shih P’u-chi 釋普濟 (Sung dynasty) or Hui-ming 慧明 (Sung dynasty), Five Lamps assembly of origins (Wu-teng hui-yȕan 五燈會元), “Pai-chang chang”, says: “The spirit-light shining alone pulls one far free from the Root-dust (ken-ch’en 根塵).” Root-dust means “the (mundane) object or sensation of any organ of sense”.

  iii) Spirit Light, being the name of a palace-hall, i.e. Lu Ling-wang 魯靈光, “Spirit Light of Lu”. Wang T’ing-shou 王廷壽 (fl. ca. AD 1), Preface to Lu’s Spirit-light Palace-hall rhapsody (Lu Ling-kuang-tien fu hsu 魯靈光殿賦序), says: “This Lu’s Spirit-light Palace-hall was erected by Yü, Prince Kung, (Kung-wang Yu 恭王餘), son of Emperor Magnificent [Ching-ti 景帝, reigned 156 BC - 141 BC] and Beautiful-empress Ch’eng (Ch’eng-chi 程姬). When it happened that the Han dynasty declined and ‘bandits and brigands’ (rebels) rushed around attacking the palace-halls called Unfinished (Wei-yang 未央) and Establishing-splendour (Chien-chang 建章) of the Western Capital
[i.e. Ch’ang-an] were both overthrown and wrecked, but Spirit-light alone survived tall and strong.” Later on, the term Lu palace-hall Spirit-light (Lu-tien Ling-kang 魯殿靈光) or Lu Spirit-light came to mean: “someone who’s an experienced veteran and of great virtue, who’s the object of everybody’s expectations, and who just about survives.”

  1015Hsin-teng 心燈, Mind-lamp, i.e. inner spirit, intelligence, mind, (which lights things up like a lamp,) being a Buddhist term.

  1016Heng-yao-shih 衡遙石, Constant-distance Stone. Legend has it that after Most-prized-empress Yang (Yang Kui-fei 楊貴妃) had died, Shining August-emperor (Ming-huang 明皇) missed her immensely, and a Taoist adept (tao-shih 道士) ground stones of every colour/a five-coloured stone (wu-se-shih 五色石), i.e. the Constant-distance Stone, into a powder, and made it into candle, the Body-returning Candle (Huan-hsing-chu 還形燭). When the Body-returning Candle was lit within bed-screens, the emperor on going into them, saw Empress Yang.

  1017Fa-chan 法盞, dharma-goblet, magic goblet, a Buddhist- or Taoist-sounding term for a drinking-vessel with supernatural qualities.

  1018shui-mi yeh mei-yu pan-tien chiao-ch’an 水米也沒有半點交纒, “not half a dot of water and rice is inter-muddled or intermingled”, i.e. there’s no slightest mutual interaction? An expansion of the idiom shui-mi wu-chiao 水米無交, “there’s no intermingling of water and rice”. Lo Kuan-chung 羅貫中 (fl. ca. AD 1367) (attrib.), Watery badlands (Shui-hu chuan 水滸傳), says: “He’s ‘water and rice have no intermingling’ with me, of no relevance whatsoever.” In this drama, Hung Sheng perhaps means “they have no interaction with/ relevance to each other”.