ii) the name of a dwelling of immortals. Wang Ku 王轂 (fl. ca. AD 901), Ballad of dreaming of immortality (Meng-hsien yao 夢仙謠) has the line: “I’ve roamed all over the carmine steps of Jade Terrace.” The “jasper” is also used in other terms, tending to be associated with the goddess Royal Mother of the West (Hsi-wang-mu 西王母).
64 yü-ts’e 玉冊, Jade Volumes/Documents, one of the royal appointment or dismissal documents (ts’e-shu 冊書) of ancient times. The ts’e is also found written ts’e 策, which the supreme ruler used for issuing commands. Fan Yeh 范曄 (398 - 445) and others, Latter Han history (Hou Han Shu 後漢書), “Lang Yi chuan”, says: “Writing jade-board volumes/docments.” Tso Ssu 左思 (AD? - ca. AD 306), Wei-capital rhapsody (Wei-tu fu 魏都賦), says: “Spying jade documents in gold cover/envelope, Examining illustrated records in stone palace.”
Hsü Shih-tseng 徐師曾, Distinguishing literary genres (Wen-t’i ming-pien 文體明辨), says: “The ancient documents for awarding fiefs and titles (ts’e-ming chih shu 册命之書) were merely distributed to ministers, but in later ages, because the use of them grew steadily more complex, there were altogether eleven kinds of them: 1. Prayer/Wishes Documents (chu-ts’e 祝冊), 2. Jade Documents (yü-ts’e 玉冊), 3. Standing/Setting-up Documents (li-ts’e 立冊), 4. Enfiefing Documents (feng-ts’e 封冊), 5. Mourning Documents (ai-ts’e 哀冊), 6. Bestowal Documents (tseng-ts’e 贈冊), 7. Posthumous-title Documents (shih-ts’e 諡冊), 8. Bestowal and Posthumous Documents (tseng-shih-ts’e贈諡冊), 9. Sacrificial-service Documents (chi-ts’e 祭冊), 10. Conferment Documents (tz’u-ts’e 賜冊), 11. Pardoning/Dismissal Documents (mien-ts’e 免冊).
Liu Hsü 劉昫 (887-946) and others, Old T’ang history (Chiu T’ang-shu 舊唐書) (AD 945), “Pai-kuan chih”, says: “There were seven systems for regal statements: 1. Document Writing (ts’e-shu 冊書), 2. System Writing (chih-shu 制書), 3. Comfort-and-rewards Writing (wei-lao chih-shu 慰勞制書), 4. Command Issue (fa-ch’ih 發敕), 5. Command Order (ch’ih-chih 敕旨), 6. Measures-adjudging Command-writing (lun-shih ch’ih-shu 論事敕書), 7. Command Document (ch’ih-tieh 敕牒). The Secretariat (chung-shu-sheng 中書省) was in charge of them.”
65Chiao-fang 椒房, Pepper Room. Pan Ku 班固 (32-92), Han history (Han-shu 漢書, “Ch’e Kan-ch’iu chuan”, says: “Formerly, Chiang Ch’ung 江充 [?BC - 90 BC] had previously kept the Palace ladies of Kan-ch’ȕan 甘泉 in good order. And went instead to Pepper Room in Unfinished Palace (Wei-yang 未央).” A note to that says: “Pepper Room was the name of a palace-hall. It was where the empress (huang-hou 皇后) lived. It was thus called because its walls were daubed with a mixture of pepper and clay, to derive warmth and fragrance from the pepper.”
Fan Yeh 范曄 (398 - 445) and others, Later Han history (Hou Han Shu 後漢書), “Ti-wu-lun chuan”, says: “Tou Hsien 竇憲 [?BC - 92 BC] was a relative of the Pepper Room.” A note to that says: “The imperial wives daubed its walls with pepper, to derive fertility, a lot of children, from it. Hence it was called Pepper Room.”
The name was also found as Chiao-wu 椒屋, likewise meaning Pepper Room. Fan Yeh’s same work, “Huang-hou chi tsan”, says: “They administered in Orchid Boudoir (Lan-kui 蘭閨), and proclaimed the rites in Pepper Room (Chiao-wu).” A note to that says: “Chiao-wu is the same as Chiao-fang.”
66Feng Ni 馮嫟, Feng Intimate/Comely/Alluring, the name of a Bonny Lady (chieh-yü 婕妤, a title of an imperial wife), a wife of Emperor Origin (Yȕan-ti 元帝, reigned 48 BC - 33 BC) of the Han dynasty. Later she was awarded the title Resplendent-grace Lady (chao-yi 昭儀). One day, a bear escaped from its pit, and, fearing the emperor might be harmed by it, Feng Intimate placed herself in front of the bear to protect him with her own body.
67 Ban Chi 班姬, Bonny Lady (chieh-yü 婕妤) Pan, a wife of the Han dynasty emperor Ch’eng-ti (reigned 32 BC-7 BC). One day in an imperial flower-garden, the emperor wanted her to sit in the same carriage as him, but she declined, declaring that the emperor should always keep company with good ministers, and not favour beautiful women.
68t’ung-kuan 彤管, “crimson tube/stem”, a term for the writing-brush used by female scribes/historians (nü-shih 女史) in ancient times to record administrative orders and the activities of imperial wives in the imperial palace. Anon. (around 600 BC), Songs classic (Shih-ching 詩經), no. 42, verse 2 line 2: “She gives me a gift of a crimson writing-brush.” A note to that says: “A ‘crimson writing-brush stem’, was a writing-brush with a crimson stem.” A further commentary adds: “It had to be crimson, which sought to cause female scribes to serve the imperial wives with ‘crimson’ [loyal] hearts, and rectify the sequence between main imperial wives and secondary ones.”
69 Chao Fei-yen 趙飛燕 (?BC - 1 AD), Chao Flying-swallow, the lascivious empress of Emperor Perfection (Ch’eng-ti 成帝, reigned 32 BC - 7 BC). She was the daughter of Lin, Marquis of Hsien-yang (Hsien-yang-hou Lin 咸陽侯臨). As a child, she learned singing and dancing. The emperor, going about incognito, saw, and was delighted with her, and summoned her and her younger sister into the imperial palace, making both of them a Bonny Lady/Bonny Queen (chieh-yü 婕妤) imperial wife, they capping the imperial womenfolk in the love-favours received from the emperor.
When Empress Hsü (Hsü-hou 徐后) was dismissed, Flying-swallow was set up as empress (hou 后), and her younger sister awarded the title Resplendent-grace Lady (chao-yi 昭儀). The two of them monopolised the emperor’s doting favours for ten or so years, day and night leading him astray, bringing it about that he had a stroke and died. When Emperor Lamentation (Ai-ti 哀帝, reigned 6 BC - 1 BC) ascended the throne, he honoured Flying-swallow as August Empress-dowager (huang t’ai-hou 皇太后), but when Emperor Peace (P’ing-ti 平帝, reigned AD 1 - 5) became ruler, he dismissed her to become a commoner, and she committed suicide.
She was famed for her lascivious beauty and influence over the Emperor. Pan Ku 班固 (32-92), Han history (Han-shu 漢書, “Wai-ch’i chuan”, says: “Emperor Perfection’s Empress Chao was in origin a Ch’ang-an palace-lady, belonging to the household of the Ruler [ Princess] of Yang-a (Yang-a-chu 陽阿主 [Yang-a being a place north-west of present-day Feng-t’ai county in Shansi province]). She learned singing and dancing, and was nicknamed Flying-swallow. Emperor Perfection, once, when travelling incognito, called at the house of the Ruler of Yang-a, and musical entertainments were performed, and he saw Flying-swallow, was pleased by her, and summoned her to serve in his palace, she later becoming his empress.”
Unofficial biography of Flying-swallow (Chao Fei-yen wai-chuan 趙飛燕外傳), attributed to Ling Yȕan 伶元 / Ling Hsȕan 伶玄 (fl. ca. AD 1) but probably post-Han and even as late as the Tang or Sung dynasties, says: “Flying-swallow used Nine-bends’ Aquilaria [Aquilaria agallocha] Perfume (Chiu-ch’ü Ch’en-shui-kao 九曲沉水膏) for her moisturiser [face-ointment], and she made herself a curly hair-do and called it ‘New Hair-do’ (Hsin-chi 新髻), made herself fine eyebrows and called them ‘Distant Mountains Eyebrow-black’ (Yȕan-shan-tai 遠山黛), and applied Little Vermilion (Hsiao-chu 小朱) [to her cheeks] and called it ‘Languor-inducing Make-up’ (Yung-lai-chuang 慵來粧).”
The same work says: “She was fibre-slender, agile, light and slim, and bore herself as if fluttering round in dance, and people called her Flying-swallow.” It was said that she was so light that she could perform a dance on someone’s palm.
70 Chao-yang 昭陽, i.e. Chao-yang-tien 昭陽殿, Bright/Brilliant/ Resplendent/Shining-sunlight Palace-hall, the name of a Han dynasty palace-hall. Emperor Warrior (Wu-ti 武帝, reigned 140 - 87 BC) had eight quarters for his womenfolk, and this was one of them. During the reign of Emperor Perfection (Ch’eng-ti 成帝, reigned 32 BC - 7 BC), Chao Flying-swallow (Chao Fei-yen 趙飛燕), and her younger sister were lady-mandarins in his court, and lodged in a Shining-sunlight Building (Chao-yang-she 昭陽舍), which was the same place as Shining-sunlight Palace-hall. In this present drama, the Han dynasty hall is again u
sed instead of a T’ang dynasty one, and it’s particularly appropriate here, since like Most-prized-empress Yang (Yang Kui-fei 楊貴妃), the fabulously lascivious Chao Flying-swallow was the emperor’s beloved.
71Chin-wu 金屋, “golden room/house”, often refers to the story in Old matters of Emperor Warrior of the Han (Han Wu ku-shih 漢武故事): Ch’en Ying’s 陳嬰 great grand-daughter was named Dear-dainty (A-chiao 阿嬌), and her mother was Emperor Warrior’s (Wu-ti 武帝) [reigned 140 BC - 87 BC] aunt, the Elder Princess of Kuan-t’ao (Kuan-t’ao Ch’ang-kung-chu 館陶長公主). When [the future] Emperor Warrior was a child, the Elder Princess once picked him up in her arms, put him on her knee, and asked him: “Do you want to have a wife, my son?” And she pointed at Dear-dainty, and said: “Would she do?” “If I got Dear-dainty,” replied the future emperor with a smile, “I’d have to keep her in a gold room.” Elder Princess was most delighted at this, and later accordingly requested the emperor to bring about the marriage. When he ascended the throne, he set Dainty-one up as his empress. From this story, later ages used the term “Keeping a dainty beauty [chiao 嬌] in a gold room” (chin-wu ts’ang-chiao 金屋藏嬌) to signify building a splendid room/ house in which to lodge a lady.
72 yü-lou 玉樓, “jade tower”, “jade bower”:
(i) Li Shang-yin 李商隱 (813 - 858), A small biography of Li He (Li He hsiao-chuan 李賀小傳), says: “Li He 李賀 [791 - 817] saw in the daytime a man wearing crimson robes, riding a young red horned-dragon, and grasping a placard on which was written in seal-script of ultimate antiquity, ‘God has completed a white jade tower (pai-yü-lou 白玉樓), and immediately commands you, sir, to compose a memorandum for it.’ Shortly afterwards, Li He died.” Li He was only twenty-six or so when he died, and so later people came to refer to a young literary man’s early death as “responding to an imperial summons to the jade tower” (yü-lou fu-chao 玉樓復朝) or “composing a memorandum on the jade tower” (yü-lou hsiu-chi 玉樓修記).
(ii) a poetic euphemism for “a fine storeyed building”. Wei Chuang 韋莊 (fl. ca. AD 900) has a poem with the lines: “Gold-bridled horse whinnies on the fragrant-flower land, Jade-bower person gets drunk in the apricot-blossom sky.”
(iii) Su Shih 蘇軾 (1036 - 1101) has a poem with the lines: “Freezing joins jade bower’, wintry cold raises goose-pimples, Light rocks the silver sea’, dazzled and producing flowers.” A note to that says: “In the Taoist scriptures the collar-bone is called jade bower’, and the eyes are called ‘silver sea(s)’.”
73 These two lines are from a poem by Tu Fu 杜甫 (712 - 770).
74 Lines from a poem by Hsieh T’iao 謝朓 (464 - 499).
75 Wu-yȕn 五雲, Five Clouds:
i) clouds of all the five basic colours/all colours, used by “meteorologists/observers of vtal energies/air/ether” (wang-ch’i-che 望氣者) to prognosticate. Anon. (late Chou-early Han), Chou rites (Chou-li 周禮), “Ch’un-kuan”, “Pao-chang-shih”, says: “With the objective phenomena (wu 物) of the Five Clouds, one distinguishes the ill-fortune phenomena/signs (chin-hsiang 祲象) of good and ill fortune, droughts and the sending down of bumper harvests and famines.” A note to that says: “Wu 物 means “colour/aspect” (se 色). They looked at the colours of the cloud vapours beside the sun.”
ii) propitious clouds of all five basic colours/all colours. Chang Chȕn-fang 張君房 (fl. ca. AD 1001), Seven labels of Cloud Book-box (Yün-chi ch’i-ch’ien 雲笈七籤), says: “Yȕan-chou 元洲 has a palace which is sky-high, amid Five Clouds.”
There’s also the term Five-coloured Clouds (wu-se-yȕn 五色雲). Liu Hsü 劉昫 (887 - 946) and others, Old T’ang history (Chiu T’ang-shu 舊唐書) (AD 945), “Cheng Su chuan”, says: “Cheng Su’s 鄭肅 son was Chi 洎, and Chi’s son was Jen-piao 仁表, whose literary writing was fine and outstanding, but he abused his ability to act arrogantly and offensively, and said his own literary writings on households, land and personalities were all fine, once saying, ‘Celestial good omens include the Five-coloured Clouds, human good omens include Cheng Jen-piao.”
76Chin-T’ang 金堂, Gold Hall/Reception-hall:
i) a term for a splendid, mighty reception-hall. An ancient song of the Han dynasty has the lines: “Entering through the gold door, and ascending Gold Hall.” Yang Hsien-chih 楊銜之 (fl. ca. AD 547), Record of the sangharamas of Lo-yang (Lo-yang ch’ieh-lan chi 洛陽伽藍記) (ca. AD 547), says: “Up on Mount Erigeron-chenopodium, there are Silver Palace-gate-towers (yin-ch’ȕeh 銀闕) and Gold Halls, amid which immortals and stages stood side by side.”
ii) the name of a mountain.
iii) the name of a river,
iv) the name of a recent county,
v) the name of an asterism.
77From a poem by Chou Pang-yen 周邦彥 (1056 - 1121).
78See note above.
79 Yin-he 銀河, lit, Silver River:
i) i.e. the Milky Way, our galaxy, also called T’ien-he 天河, Heaven’s River, and Ming-he 明 河, Shining River.
ii)a term for a wine vessel. Sir Dried-boiled-chopped-meat（Kan-sun tzu 乾？子 ）says: “P’ei Chȕn’s great feast had Silver Rivers, which held one tou 斗.”.
iii)a term for “eyes”. Chao Ch’ung-Hsȕan 趙崇絢 (Sung dynasty), Chicken rib (Chi-le 雞肋), says: “The Taoists take the eyes as Silver Rivers.”
80 hsien-chang 仙掌, “immortal (hand-)palm”. I.e. hsien-jen-chang 仙人掌, “immortal (hand-)palm”:
i) a term for a holder of a dish to catch dew, being an imperial-palace ornament. The “propitious” dew was collected in a dish held on the palms of a statue of an immortal. Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), Han history (Han-shu 漢書), “Hsiao-ssu chih”, says: “Emperor Warrior (Wu-ti 武帝) [reigned 140 BC - 87 BC] made such things as Cypress Beams, Bronze Pillars, Dew Receptacles and Immortal’s Palms (hsien-jen-chang).” A note to this says: “It’s an immortal lifting up a dish on his palm(s) to receive sweet dew.”
ii) the name of the east peak of Sacred-peak Hua (Hua-Yȕeh 華嶽).
iii) the name of a kind of tea, produced in Ching-chou in Hupeh province. Li Pai 李白 (701 - 762) composed a poem entitled Immortal Palm tea (Hsien-jen-chang ch’a 仙人掌茶).
iv) cactus, Opuntia monacanchia.
81 ch’iung-hua 瓊花, “chalcedon-flower”, a term for a rare or wondrous flower or plant. Ch’iung is of long-imprecise meaning, “a beautiful kind of jade”, and “chalcedon” or “chalcedony” are just provisional labels. Some say chalcedon-flower means “agate” (ma-nao 瑪瑙). As a real flower: hydrangea, hydrangea hortensia. In its supernatural connotations, it refers to flowers or blossoms of Heaven. Chalcedon-flower was also a tune-title, as here, seemingly being a shortening of
Chalcedon-flower Water Mode song (Ch’iung-hua Shui-tiao ke 瓊花水調歌). Ch’en Wen-shu 陳文述 (1771 - 1843), Fodder-grain Arris’s collected literary works (Mo-leng chi 秣棱集), scroll 4, Mourning at Chiang Tsung’s residence by Green Brook (Ch’ing-hsi tiao Chiang Tsung chai 青溪弔江總宅), mentions what must be tune-titles: “The Jade-tree in spring melody (Yü-shu lin-ch’un ch’ȕ 玉樹臨春曲) of those times, and the Mourning at Chiang Tsung’s residence by Green Brook of other times”. Hung Sheng takes Chalcedon-flower as a tune of the imperial palace.
82 yü-shu 玉樹, Jade Tree:
i) the name of a kind of tree. Anon. (late Chou dynasty and Han dynasty), Mountains and seas classic (Shan-hai ching 山海經), “Hai-nei hsi-ching”, says: “North of Open Shine there’s a Patterned-jade Tree (wen-yü-shu 文玉樹). A note to that says: “A Five-colour Jade-tree.”
ii) another name for the scholartree (huai-shu 槐樹), Sophora japonica.
iii) a jewelled tree, tree decorated with jewels. Yang Hsiung 揚雄 (53 BC - AD 18), Sweet-spring rhapsody (Kan-ch’ȕan fu 甘泉賦), has the lines: “The shalot-verdancy of the kingfisher Jade Tree.” Old matters of Emperor Warrior of the Han (Han Wu ku-shih 漢武故事) says that the Jade Tree of Sweet-source Palace (Kan-ch’ȕan-kung 甘泉宮)
had a trunk made of piled coral, its leaves made of green jade, its flowers and seeds sometimes green sometimes crimson, all made of pearls and jade. In a note to this rhapsody, Yen Shih-ku 顏師古 (581 - 645) says: “The Jade Tree was made by Emperor Warrior (Wu-ti 武帝) [reigned 140 -87 BC], who assembled every kind of jewel to make it, and used it to make offerings to the gods.”
iv) a metaphor for fine ability. Liu Yi-ch’ing 劉義慶 (403 - 444), New talk of society’s tales (Shih-sho shsin-yü 世說新語), “Jung-chih”, says: “Emperor Shining (Ming-ti 明帝) [reigned 227 - 239] of Wei had his empress’s younger brother Mao Tseng 毛曾 sit together with Hsia-hou Hsüan 夏侯玄, and their contemporaries referred to them as ‘reed leaning against Jade Tree.’” Fang Ch’iao 房喬 (579 - 648), and others (eds.), Tsin history (Chin-shu 晉書), “Hsieh Hsȕan chuan”, says: “Hsieh Hsȕan 謝玄 [343 - 388] and his elder paternal cousin Hsieh Lang 謝郎 were both prized by their uncle (father’s younger brother) Hsieh An 謝安 [320 - 385], who once sought to exhort his sons and nephews, and said: ‘If you young gentlemen do indeed take part in governmental affairs, and concentrate on trying to render them excellent, what will you resort to?’
“It would be analagous, ’replied Hsieh Hsȕan, ‘to irises, orchids and jade trees: one just wishes them to grow by the courtyard steps.’”
This latter presumably means that one tries to get the noblest, best men to serve in court?
v) the name of a present-day county in Tsinghai province.
Appendices and Endnotes Page 15
