1273These are all nicknames of famous ladies, of China’s ancient past, labelling them by key characteristucs or deeds
1274T’a-yao-niang踏搖娘, Stomping-and-rocking woman, the term for an early proto-dramatic genre of play
1275ju kan-chü 乳柑橘, “milk/breast tangerine/mandarin/ orange”, probably the same as ju-kan 乳柑, Citrus nobilis, “milk mandarin”, so called because it tastes like milk or cream.
1276ts’ai-hsi 采戲, Coloured Silk-fabric Game, name of a gambling game in which dice were thrown to obtain pieces of coloured silk.
1277To-hsin ching 多心經, Doubt/ Caprice sutra. I haven’t located such a work yet.
1278Tai-tsung 代宗, T’ang dynasty emperor, reigned 763 - 779.
1279Jang-ti 讓帝, T’ang dynasty emperor.
1280Research provides an absence of a Fifteenth Year, so seemingly the First Year of the Perfect-virtue reign-period is meant.
1281nan-shu 楠樹, i.e. nan-mu 楠木, name of a kind of tree, Machilus nanmu or Phoebe nanmu. Although the “stone” could be part of the name or meant to mean “calcified”.
1282A notorious Han dynasty cheat, who was unmasked.
1283Lit. “empire-overturning influence”.
1284Lit. “rouge and powder”.
1285Kao Li-shih, the famous eunuch chamberlain who wielded so much power under Dark-progenitor.
1286Lit. “holding earth in her mouth”.
1287Should be Ch’en Yȕan-li
1288and obtaining his permission
1289His son now having become emperor in his stead.
1290The Szechwan region.
1291eunuch
1292i.e. not in a coffin.
1293Ya-lo-shan.
1294Wang Yi-fu 王夷夫, i.e. Wang Yen 王衍 (256 - 311), an important minister of the Eastern Tsin dynasty. Yi-fu was his courtesy name. He was a man of Lin-yi 霖沂 in Lang-ya 琅琊, in present-day Shantung province. He became prime minister. In AD 311, he was captured by the warlord Shih Le 石勒, and, seeking to hang into his life, he urged Shih Le to proclaim himself emperor. Shih executed him. Here the play seems to be saying “don’t take it as an errant minister acknowledging a potential usurper”
1295p’ing-chang cheng-shih 平章政事, Manager of Governmental Affairs, a title of an eminent central government minister.
1296t’ien-ch’ȕan 鐵券, “iron deed/contract/receipt”. In ancient times, when imperial awards were made to meritorious servants of the state, if they themselves or their posterity later committed any crimes or offences, they used the “iron deeds” as tokens of proof to enable them to remind of their meritorious deeds, and thus to obtain pardon for or mitigation from punishment. They were characterised as something of solid durability, which is why they were made of iron. Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), Han history (Han-shu 漢書), “Chi Tsun chuan”, gives the term “iron deeds and cinnabar writings (t’ieh-ch’ȕan tan-shu 鐵券丹書)” , the same work, “Kao-ti chi”, gives it as “cinnabar writing and iron deed-tokens (tan-shu t’ieh-ch’I 丹書鐵契), and Ts’ao Chao 曹昭 (Ming dynasty), Vital discourses on the categorisation of antiquities (Ke-ku yao-lun 格古要論), gives “gold writings and cinnabar deeds (chin-shu t’ieh- ch’ȕan 金書鐵券)”. Ch’eng Ta-ch’ang 程大昌 (1123 - 1195), Expansion of “Luxuriant dew” (Yen “Fan-lu” 演繁露), says: “We note that Hsin Ch’i-kui 辛齊炅 (T’ang dynasty], Jade Hall’s new systems (Yü-t’ang hsin-chih 玉堂新制), says: ‘Iron deeds are missing one half, and shaped like a little wooden cooking-bowl [i.e. a circular vessel, with a round bowl and round lid], with four holes at the top, through which strips can be threaded, and characters are carved on its convex surface, which are filled with gold to make them shine brightly.’ Trying to imagine the structure of these “deeds” from what Hsin Ch’i-kui notes, they would have been of iron material, with gold characters on them, perfectly round with an empty space in the middle, and the characters of the text of the emperor’s directive incised on its outside. The vessel is divided in two, one of the parts being kept in store by the government, the other being handed over to the various recipients of the deeds, which is why what survive nowadays look like half of the bottles.” He adds: “Emperor High-ancestor (Kao-tsu 高祖 [reigned 206 BC - 195 BC]) of thee Han dynasty split bamboo tallies as vows to meritorious servants of the state, writing them in vermilion/cinnabar on iron deeds, storing them in gold caskets in stone rooms in the imperial ancestral temple. Where most likely did the iron deed begin? “When it came to such phrases as ‘mountain river bearing whetstone’ of “Tables of meritorious servants of the state” (“Kung-ch’en piao” 功臣表) [, a section of Pan Ku’s Han history], they were the texts of ‘iron deeds and cinnabar writing’.” Ling Yang-tsao 淩揚藻 (1760 - 1845), Half-calabash-ladle Wine-pouring’s compilation (Li-cho pien 蠡酌編), says: “Its form is like a tile, with details of the man’s curriculum vitae and imperial favours carved on its outside, so as to record his meritorious deeds. Inside are incised the items of his pardon for crimes and reductions of his emoluments, so as to prevent his offending. The characters are inlaid with gold, each divided into left and right, the left one issued to the meritorious servant of the state, and the right one kept stored in the Imperial-palace Treasury (nei-fu 內府), and when there’s a reason to do so, the two are joined to validate the token.”
1297Lit. “elder brother”.
1298Shun 舜.
1299Is the idea that even the god Oxherd with his greater, supernatural capacity for love, would naturally be even more strongly drawn to love and longings?
1300Lung-yang ch’i-yü 龍陽泣魚, “Lung-yang weeps over fish”. Lung-yang:
(i) Liu Hsiang 劉向 (77 BC - 6 BC) (dub. attr.), Warring States intrigues/ Policies/Schemes/Intrigues of the Warring States (Chan-kuo ts’e 戰國策), “Wei-ts’e”, tells us that a king of Wei (Wei-wang 魏王) during the Warring States period had a minister with whom he was intimate, called the Lord of Lung-yang (Lung-yang-chȕn 龍陽君), who received his loving favours. One day, when they were both angling from the same boat, the Lord of Lung-yang, having caught ten or so fish, shed tears. The king asked him why. “When I’d just caught some fish,” the Lord of Lung-yang replied, “I was most delighted, but afterwards I caught some even bigger ones, and was actually wanting to throw away the ones I’d caught before. Now I’m able to caress your pillow and sheet, but there are so many beautiful people (mei-jen 美人) in this wide world, and when they hear that I’ve gained your loving favour, they’re bound to lift up their skirt-hems and rush to Your Majesty, and I’ll be like the fish that I caught before, and will surely be cast aside. So how can I not weep?”
So, the king promulgated a command that if anyone within his domains had the effrontery to mention ‘beautiful people’, they and their clans would be liquidated. Later times termed males of sexual beauty Lung-yang. Juan Chi 阮籍 (210 - 263), in his poem Singing of my emotions (Yung-huai詠懷), has the lines: “Of yore, beautiful young gentlemen/dandies, Were An-ling 安陵 and Lung-yang.”
ii) the name of an old county, set up by the Kingdom of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. The Yȕan dynasty elevated it to a sub-prefecture, the Ming dynasty restoring the county, coming under Ch’ang-te prefecture (Ch’ang-te-fu 常德府) in Hunan province. This was retained by the Ch’ing dynasty. The Republic changed it to Han-shou.
1301Pan-chi t’i-shan 班姬題扇, “Queen/ Beauty Pan inscribes a fan”. Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), Han History (Han-shu 漢書), scroll 97, “Wai-ch’i chuan”, says: “In the third year of the reign-period Hung-chia [i.e. 18 BC], Chao Flying Swallow (Chao Fei-yen 趙飛燕) clandestinely accused Empress Hsü and Pan Chieh-yü of trying to lure the emperor by seductive charms, and of cursing the rear palace, their imprecations including the emperor. Empress Hsü was charged and dismissed. Under interrogation, Pan Chieh-yü said, ‘I’ve heard said that life and death are pre-ordained, and that wealth and eminence lie with Heaven. For all my cultivating of rectitude I’ve still not been the recipi
ent of Heaven’s blessings, so what would I be hoping for by practicing evil?! If the spirits and gods have cognisance, they won’t accept the complaints of an immoral courtier. And they don’t have cognisance: what gain would be had by complaining to them! That’s why I didn’t do it.’ The emperor found her reply excellent, and felt pity for her, bestowing on her a gift of one hundred catties of yellow gold. The two Chao sisters were arrogant and jealous, and Queen Pan feared that in the long run she’d be put in peril, so she requested to be allowed to look after the empress dowager in Eternal-trust Palace (Ch’ang-hsin-kung 長信宮), the emperor giving his consent to it.” Hsiao T’ung 簫統 (501 - 531) (comp.), Selection of fine literature (Wen-hsȕan 文選), gives a poem somewhat dubiously said to have been composed by Queen Pan:
New-cut satinette from Ch’i,
As frost and snow, so fresh and clean;
I trim it into a joined-loved symbol fan,
As full rounded a unity as the bright shining moon.
You keep it, to take out from your robe-breast or sleeves,
And when you wave it, my love,
there issue gentle “breezes”.
I’m ever afraid that when autumn‘s season arrives,
Chill gales will snatch away all the flame heat.
And you’ll cast it away in into casket or trunk,
And our love will be severed before yet complete.
The allusion to this incident of her writing the poem on the fan is frequently found, sometimes in a context referring specifically to Queen Pan, sometimes not, and reinforces the sense of her boudoir repining.
Liu Hsiao-ch’o 劉孝綽 (481 - 539) has a poem Pan Chieh-yü’s repining (Pan Chieh-yü yȕan 班婕妤怨) with the lines: “I resemble an autumn fan; my lord’s loving favours resemble a shoe-lace (lü-ch’i 履綦) [also found defined as “a decoration under a shoe”].” Latter metaphor requiring some further investigation.
1302 Chin-ch’ȕeh 金闕, “gold palace-watchtower”:
(i) Taoist writings say that up in Heaven there’s a Yellow-gold Palace-watch-tower White-jade Capital (Huang-chin- ch’ȕeh Pai-yü-ching 黃金闕白玉京), which is where the God of Heaven (T’ien-ti 天帝) dwells. Ke Hung葛洪 (284 - 363), Writings in the pillow (Chen-chung shu 枕中書), says: “After a thousand years, I shall invite you to ascend to the Great Supreme (T’ai-shang 太上) Gold Palace-watchtower for a court feast in the Jade Capital (Yü-ching 玉京).” Liu Hsü (887 - 946), Old Book of the Tang (Jiu Tang Shu 舊唐書), (945), “Hsȕan-tsung chi”, says: “On the day jen-chia of the Second Month of the Thirteenth Year of the Heaven Treasure reign-period, at the presentation of tribute gifts at court in Grand-purity Palace (T’ai-ch’ing-kung 太清宮), he increased Dark-origin August-emperor’s (Hsȕan-yȕan Huang-ti 玄元皇帝) [i.e. Sir Old (Lao-tzu 老子)] title to Great Sage-ancestor High-superior Great-cosmic-law Gold-palace-watchtower Dark-origin Great Emperor-god (Ta Sheng-tsu Kao-shang Ta-tao Chin-ch’ȕeh Hsȕan-yȕan Ta-ti 大聖祖高上大道金闕玄元大帝).” This says that Sir Old dwells in Gold Palace-watchtower [i.e. palace].
(ii) a poetic term or euphemism for the palace lived in by an emperor. Ts’en Shen 岑參 (715 - 770) has a poem with the lines: “From Gold Palace-watchtower the dawn bells open ten thousand house doors. On jade steps ‘immortals’’ the insignia-cortege crowds round the thousand mandarins.”
1303chao-ts’ai feng 招彩鳳, “colour-beckoning phoenix”. A poetic term for a parasol-tree.
1304wu-ch’ing luan 舞青鸞, “green-dancing roc”. A poetic euphemism for a parasol-tree?
1305chin-ching 金井, “gold well”. Poets call a well that has a beautifully ornamented well-railing by the euphemism of “a gold(en) well”. A poem by Wang Ch’ang-ling 王昌齡 (AD? - ca. AD 756) has the line: “Parasol-tree leaves by gold well in autumn are yellowed.” A poem by Tu Fu 杜甫 (712 - 770) contains the lines: “Inkstone wintry with gold-well water, Eaves stirred by jade-pot ice.” Ts’ao Yeh’s 曹鄴 (fl. ca. AD 859) poem Gold-well repining (Chin-ching yȕan 金井怨) has the lines:“West wind blows in the hasty scene; beautiful lady mirrors herself in the gold well.”
1306Cheng Kuan-yin 鄭觀音, Cheng Avalokhitesvara, being the name of a female musician of the court of Emperor Dark-progenitor.
1307Hua-nu 花奴, Flowery-slave, being the name of a drummer of the court of Emperor Dark-progenitor.
1308yu-lan 幽蘭, “secluded epindendrums”, a term for epidendrums. Fan Cheng-min 范正敏 (Sung dynasty), Escapism Studio’s leisured perusals (Tun-chai hsien-lan 遯齋閒覽), gives the term, which perhaps derives from the fact that epidendrums were poetically also referred to as “secluded guests” (yu-k’e 幽客).
1309nen e-huang 嫩鵝黃, Tender Goose-yellow, a term for or perhaps a name for pale-yellow mild wine. Goose-yellow is:
(i) a term for “pale yellow colour”, geese being of such a colour. Tu Fu 杜甫 (712 - 770), in his poem Gosling before my boat (Chou-ch’ien hsiao-e 舟前小鵝), has the lines: “The gosling’s as yellow as the wine: Pouring wine I’m fond of new Goose.” A note to that by Ch’iu Chao-ao 仇兆鼇 (late 17th century AD), Detailed notes on Tu Fu’s collected literary works (Tu Shao-ling chi hsiang-chu 杜少陵集詳註 says: “Survey of the Earth’s splendid scenic spots (Fang-yü sheng-lan 方輿勝覽): ‘Goose-yellow’s the name of a wine from Han-chou 漢州 and in Shu 蜀 there’s none other than can match up to it.’ Tu Fu’s poem is talking of the colour of the wine.” Chao Meng-fu 趙孟頫 (1254 - 1322), in his poem Early spring (Tsao-ch’un早春), has the lines: “I lean at leisure against the railing, looking at new willows, wondering who’s dyed them goose-yellow.” Yü Chi 虞集 (1272 - 1348), in his poem Hollyhocks (Shu-k’ui 蜀葵), has the lines: “Their flower-calyces stand in the fresh dawn. Their goose-yellow fresh in the sun.” These two quotes are describing the pale yellowness of willows and hollyhocks.
(ii) the name, as in Tu Fu’s poem, of a kind of wine, Goose-yellow Wine (E-huang-chiu 鵝黃酒). Chu Tun-ju朱敦儒 (ca. 1080 - ca. 1175) has a tz’u-lyric with the lines: “The Goose-yellow Wine’s soft, Fibre-slender fingers pass the goblets, freely and often pouring.”
1310Che-ku-pan 鷓鴣斑, Partridge-stripes/ -spots/-specks/-speckles, the name of a kind of perfume. Manual of famous perfumes (Ming-hsiang p’u 名香譜) says: “Partridge-stripes Perfume (Che-ku-pan-hsiang 鷓鴣斑香) is produced in Jih-nan 日南 [, a commandery in the region of present-day Shun-hua 順化 in Vietnam], and is like frankincense (ju-hsiang 乳香).” Huang T’ing-chien黃庭堅 (1045 - 1105) has a poem with the lines: “For snail shell I cut K’un-lun Ears. For perfume-material I crumb Partridge-stripes.” Lu Yu 陸游 (1125 - 1210) has a poem with the lines: “Red-bean-fir [Torreya nucifera] little table’s inkstone contains Mynah’s Eyes, Ancient makeup-box’s perfume is sliced Partridge-stripes.” In this drama Hung Sheng seems to take Partridge-stripes as the name of a kind of tea.
1311Hsien-yin-yȕan 仙音院, Immortals-music Academy. A euphemism for the Pear-orchard conservatoire?
1312hung-ya-chu 紅牙箸, Red-teeth-chopsticks. Clappers (Dub. Attr.) “Red-teeth” usually refers to such. Drumsticks.
1313wu-t’ung-an 梧桐案, parasol-tree-wood desk. A term for some form of percussive block.
1314“twig and tree-limb”? Perhaps a metaphor for Empress Yang.
1315These four men being famous noble-minded ministers of ancient times.
1316Chou-kung Tan 周公旦, Chou Duke Tan (traditionally ?BC - 1105 BC), also known as Shu Tan 叔旦 (Count Tan). He was a salient political figure at the beginning of the Chou dynasty, being the younger brother of King Civility the founder (along with King Warrior, Civility’s son, of the Chou dynasty. The Duke of Chou was the guiding hand of government during the early years of the Chou and was later held up by Confucians as a model of the virtuous minister.
1317The Wu general Chou Yü 周瑜 (175 - 210) defeated the mighty forces of Ts’ao Ts’ao at the Battle of Red Cliff in November AD 208. Su Shih 蘇軾 (1036 - 1101), in his famous poem Mus
ing on antiquity at Red Cliff (Ch’ih-pi huai-ku 赤壁懷古), has the lines: “Chou Yü … in those years, with his fair Young Ch’iao, just but newlywed, Him bold of bearing, hero-mettle forth a-bounding, feather fan in hand, dark-green ribboned cap on head. In the space of a joke, the stubborn northern slave-foe were destroyed, as melting mist, as dust a-blow!”
1318Li Kuang-pi 李光弼 (708 - 764), a man of Khitan origin from Liu-ch’eng 柳城, south of present-day Ch’ao-yang in Liaoning province. He was promoted to Left Guard Bodyguard Garrison Vice Commandant of the Left (tso-wei ch’in-fu tso lang-chiang 左衛辨府左郎將), and under Emperor Su-tsung he quelled rebellion by An Lu-shan and Shih Ssu-ming 史思明 (AD? - AD 761), and was made a Military Commissioner (chieh-tu-shih 節度使). Later, he garrisoned Sho-fang 朔方, and, in AD 759, was made a Supreme National Commander-in-chief (t’ien-hsia ping-ma tu Yȕan-shuai 天下兵馬都元扁), and later given the title Commandery Prince of Lin-huai (Lin-huai ch’ü n-wang 臨淮郡王). A skilled archer and horseman, he was stern and valorous by nature, earnest, resolute and a far-seeing military tactician. In military operations, he wouldn’t do battle until after he’d settled on his plans in conference with his officers, and the plans were often ones that brought him victory. One of the main generals in the restoration of T’ang China, He was on a par in fame with Kuo Tzu-yi 郭子儀, (697 - 781), they being paired by society as “Li and Kuo” (Li, Kuo 李、郭).
1319Hou-t’ing hua 後庭花, Rear-courtyard flower, title of a tune. Composed by Latter Ruler of the Ch’en (Ch’en Hou-chu 陳後主, reigned 583 - 589, Ch’en Shu-pao 陳叔寶), the title deriving from one of the lines of his lyrics to the tune, and later compositions sometimes concerning events of his life. In a poem by Tu Mu 杜牧 (803 - 852) the tune is taken as symbolising the lascivious, debauched life which is said to have led to the downfall of Latter Ruler’s reign and dynasty.
Appendices and Endnotes Page 59