338He-t’ing 荷亭, Lotus-flower Pavilion, the name of a pavilion in the T’ang dynasty imperial palace, possibly fictional.
339wen-fang ssu-pao 文房四寶, “the four treasures of the writing-room”, a collective term for paper, ink, brush and inkstone. Li Hsien 李賢 (1408 - 1466) and others, by imperial commission, [Ming dynasty] Comprehensive geography of the empire ([Ming] Yi-t’ung chih 明一統志), says: “Four-treasures Hall (Ssu-pao-t’ang 四寶堂) is located in the administrative city of Hui-chou prefecture (Hui-chou-fu 徽州府), the meaning of its name being that the commandery produces the Four Treasures of the Writing-room. Hsin-an gazetteer (Hsin-an chih 新安志): ‘The Four Treasures of the Writing-room of She county (She-hsien 歙縣) are paper, ink, writing-brush and inkstone.’”
340ching-hung 驚鴻, “startled-up swan-goose”. Ts’ao Chih 曹植 (192 - 232), Lo Goddess” rhapsody (Lo-shen fu 洛神賦), has the lines: “Flying fast (p’ien 翩) like a startled swan-goose, as sinuously alluring as a swimming dragon.” A note to that says: “Flying fast (p’ien-p’ien 翩翩) like a swan-goose when it’s startled up.” On the basis of this, later ages used the expression as a metaphor for the lightness/ swiftness and lissomness of a beautiful woman.
341t’ui-ch’iao 推敲, “push and knock”. He Kuang-yȕan 何光遠 (fl. ca. AD 936), Record of mirror object-lessons and warnings (Chien-chieh lu 鑒戒錄), scroll 8, “Chia Wu-chih”, says: “After that, Chia Tao 賈島 [fl. ca. 793 - 865] frequently spoke to himself, as if nobody else were present. Sometimes he would bard unrestrainedly on the main highway. Suddenly one day, riding on his donkey, there came to him the lines of composition, ‘Birds roost on the trees in the pool, a bonze knocks at a door in the moonlight.’ At first he wanted to put in the character for ‘push’, or perhaps the character for ‘knock’, and hadn’t yet settled his refining, so on donkey-back drew the character ‘push’ with gestures of his hand, then likewise that for ‘knock’. Unawares, he’d travelled halfway through the ward, and that onlookers were being surprised at him, but Chia Tao seemed not to see them. At the time, Han of the Ministry of Personnel (Han li-pu 韓吏部) was temporarily governor of the capital. He was lofty and stern of air, his awesome prestige rocking the Scarlet Paths (Tzu-mo 紫陌) [i.e. the imperial capital/the roads around the imperial capital]. After the third pair of warning bellows from the governor’s cortege, warning him to make way, Chia Tao, though, hadn’t finished his gesturing, and was promptly pushed off his donkey by the eunuch officials, and hustled before the governor. Only then did Chia Tao pull himself together, and become aware of what was happening. The governor’s advisors wanted to castigate him, and he replied to them all: ‘I chanced to be composing an impromptu couplet, but hadn’t decided on one of the characters to put in it, my wandering the Mansion of Poesie (shih-fu 詩府) causing me to bump into you, Great Mandarin. I would never have thought to err against you, and hope that you’ll deem fit to give me your mighty advice.’ Han halted his horse, and pondered it over for a very long while. ‘The character for
Versions of this account are also found in Hu Tzu 胡仔 (fl. ca. AD 1147), Trumpet-creeper Brook Fisherman-recluse’s cluster of talk (T’iao-hsi yü-yin ts’ung-hua 苕溪漁隱叢話), Hsin Wen-fang 辛文房 (Yȕan dynasty), Biographies of T’ang dynasty geniuses (T’ang ts’ai-tzu chuan 唐才子傳), and Fine tales of the Sui and T’ang dynasties (Sui T’ang chia-hua 隋唐佳話). The latter is almost identical, but has a few different characters, some of which clarify the tale: “When Chia Tao first went to the capital to take the imperial exams, one day he … unawares charged into the governor. … The governor’s entourage … Chia Tao told him all about the reasons why it had happened. The governor halted his horse for a long time.”
Later ages used “push and knock” as a term for “to repeatedly mull over the wordings of poetry”, but it also came to be used to mean, more generally, “to thoroughly/intensively seek/investigate”. “to repeatedly weigh the pros and cons”, “to think over a problem again and again”.
342luan-chien 鸞牋, “roc notelets”, small and precious-quality sheets of paper, possibly decorated with “rocs”.
343hung-ya 紅牙, “red teeth”, Red Tooth clappers, i.e. red-coloured wooden clappers, being a musical instrument used to keep the beat.
344i.e. I’m going to seek for a way to (love) paradise. This refers to T’ao-hua hsi 桃花谿, Peach-blossom Stream. The famous poet T’ao Yȕan-ming (T’ao Ch’ien (372 - 427) wrote a Peach-Blossom Stream (T’ao-yȕan chi 桃源記):
During the period 376 - 396 of the Tsin dynasty, a man from Warrior Mound (Wu-ling 武陵), who was a fisherman by profession, went off along a brook, and grew oblivious of how far he’d travelled. Suddenly he came to a forest of peach-trees, which lined the banks on either side for several hundred yards. There were no other kinds of tree among them, the sweet-smelling plants beneath them were fresh and beautiful, and the falling blossoms were showering in profusion. The fisherman was filled with admiration at the sight of them. He carried on his way, wanting to explore how far the forest reached. It ended at the source of the stream, at which point he found there was a mountain. In the mountain was a slight gap, and there seemed to be some light in it, so he abandoned his boat, and went in through the gap.
At first it was extremely narrow, only just enough for one person to get through, but after he’d gone a few score yards it suddenly opened out wide and bright, into broad, even land with stately houses. There was excellent farm-fields, fine ponds, and mulberry-trees, bamboos and so on. Field-boundary paths criss-crossed, running east and west and north and south, leading everywhere, and hens and dogs could be heard clucking and barking to each other. In the midst of all this, the men and women going to and fro at their farming tasks were just the same as folks elsewhere, fadey-haired elders and pigtailed infants all alike happy and contented.
When they noticed the fisherman, they were astonished. They asked him where he’d come from. He answered everything, and they straightway invited him back to the home of one of them, where they brought out wine, slaughtered chickens, and cooked him a meal. When news of the man reached the village, they all came to ply him with questions.
“Our ancestors fled from the political breakdown and disorder during the Ch’in dynasty,” they volunteered, “and brought their wives, children and fellow-villagers to this remote region. They stayed here and we’ve never left it again, so we’ve been cut off from outsiders.”
They asked him what era it was now, being unaware the Han dynasty had ever existed, let alone the Wei or Tsin dynasties. The man told them in detail all the information he knew about each and every matter, and they sighed in amazement at all his answers. The other people each invited him to their home, producing wine and food for him. He stayed there several days, then took his leave of them.
“It’s not worth telling outsiders about us,” the people of the place urged him.
Re-emerging, he found his boat, and at once set off along the route he’d taken before, making marks everywhere so that he’d be able to recognise the way again. When he arrived in the provincial capital, he managed to obtain a meeting with the governor, and explained what had happened to him. The governor immediately sent men off with him to look for the signs he’d made to mark the way, but they got lost and couldn’t find it any more.
Liu Lin-chih 劉驎之 [fl. ca. AD 376] of Nan-yang, was a noble-minded gentleman, and coming to hear of this, cheerily made plans to go to the place, but not long after, before they’d materialised, he fell ill and died, since when, there’s been nobody “enquiring about the ford“ seeking the way there.
Liu Yi-ch’ing 劉義慶 (403-444) also wrote a similar story called Liu Ch’en and Juan Chao in the fairy paradise:
In the fifth year [AD 62] of the Eternal Peace period in the reign of the Han emperor Shining (Ming-ti 明帝), Liu Ch’en 劉晨 and Juan Chao 阮肇 of Shan county lost their way while out collecting paper-mulberry bark, and couldn't find their way back. After thirteen days, their provisions having run out, they were on the verge of starving to death, when staring into the distance they caught sight of a peach-tree up on a mountain. The tree was laden with fruit, but stood in the midst of steep cliffs and deep ravines.
Clutching hold of creepers and hoisting themselves up by trailing plants, the two men managed to reach the tree, and each ate several peaches, until they were full, and their hunger sated.
Then, descending the mountain once more, they took their cups in their hands, and scooped up some water, intending to wash their hands and rinse their mouths. At that point, they noticed some rape-turnip leaves in the stream, floating on it out from the heart of the mountain. And, what's more, they were very fresh ones, and were followed by a cup that had some grains of sesame-rice gruel in it.
“That means we're not far away from people!” they assured each other.
So both of them dived into the water, and, proceeding against the current, made their way upstream for two or three miles. This brought them through the mountain, and out into a big brook. On the bank of the brook were two girls, both fabulously beautiful, who noticed the two men approaching, one man with the cup in his hand.
“Why, Young Master Liu and Young Master Juan.!” they exclaimed smiling, “You've brought us that cup we lost in the stream just now!”
The girls were complete strangers to Ch’en and Chao, but addressed them by their surnames, as if they wore old friends, meeting them with utter delight.
“Why’re you so tardy coming?” asked the two girls, and invited them back to their home.
It was a bamboo-tiled cottage. In it were two double-beds: one by the southern wall, and the other by the eastern wall, both beds being provided with crimson curtains of gauzy silks on the hems of which hung little bells, shimmering with a mingle of gold and silver. And at the head of each bed there were ten maidservants,
“Master Liu and Master Juan have travelled over steep and rugged mountains to get here,” the girls instructed the maids, “and although they a little while back found some fruit ‘of very jade’, they’re still empty and exhausted. Hurry now, and make them a meal.”
They dined off sesame-rice, dried goat-meat and beef, all delicious-tasting, and when they’d finished that, wine was served. And a crowd of young women appeared, each bearing three or four peaches.
“Congratulations on the arrival of your husbands!” they exclaimed, smiling, and when the drinking was well underway, they provided musical entertainments.
Liu and Juan were overcome by a mixture of ecstasy and trepidation.
As dusk fell, each of the men was shown to one of the beds for the night. Then the girls joined them there, their pure, sweet, tenderly charming voices dispelling all the young men's qualms to oblivion.
After ten days, it occurred to the men to ask if they might return to their homes.
“That you came here, my lords,” replied the girls, “was because you were drawn here, destined to this happiness. So why should you wish to go back to that place?”
So they stayed on for another six months, by when it was spring weather, with all the greenery and flowers of spring. This intensified their sad yearnings for home, and they pleaded most sorely to be allowed to return.
“It was remiss of us to entice you here, my lords,” said the girls, 'so how could we do otherwise than agree?”
Then they called the same. young women who had come before, some thirty or forty of them, and they all gathered together to play music and see Liu and Juan on their way, pointing out their homeward road for them.
As the two men emerged. into the region approaching their home, they discovered that it was lorn of their friends and relatives, with different houses, now strange to them, and nobody knowing them anymore.
On making enquiries, they came across seventh generation descendants of theirs, to whom the tale had been passed down of their disappearance into the mountains, and of their having lost their way there and failed to return.
In the eighth year [AD 383] of the Grand Origin Period of the Tsin dynasty, Liu and Juan abruptly departed once again. Where to, nobody knows.
T’ao Ch’ien doesn’t name the fisherman, but Liu Ti-ch’ing, making it two men, names them as Liu Ch’en and Juan Chao. It’s clear that the two stories have a similar origin, and indeed the source was surely some folk-tale, one indeed which has clear world-wide characteristics. The spring or stream is called Peach Spring (T’ao-yȕan 桃源) or Peach-blossom Spring (T’ao-hua-Yȕan 桃花源), and legend has it that it was situated where nowadays is the T’ao-hua-t’an 桃花潭 (Peach-blossom Deep-pool) (of which it’s said to be the remnant) at the foot of Mount T’ao-yȕan south-west of T’ao-yȕan county in Hunan province.
T’ao Ch’ien mentions the place-name Warrior Mound probably the place of that name, Wu-ling, west of present-day Ch’ang-te county in Hunan province. and Liu Yi-ch’ing gives the location of the spring as the area of Mount Heaven-terrace (T’ien-t’ai-shan 天臺山), north of present-day T’ien-t’ai county in Chekiang province. In later ages, the phrase “Peach Spring outside the world (shih-wai T’ao-yȕan 世外桃源) came to be used as a term for a refuge from the ordinary world’s disorder. The stories were seminal for much later literary creation and allusion, including dramas.
345Yin-t’ang 銀塘, Silver Pond/Embankment.
346Brought together for writing on.
347chin-tzu 錦字, “brocade (i.e. splendid/fine) characters/notes”.
348yin-kou 銀鈎, “silver hook”:
i) hook of a bamboo-strips door-curtain/portiere. Ou-yang Hsȕan 歐陽玄 (1273 - 1357) and others, Sung history (Sung-shih 宋史), AD 1345, “Yüeh-chih”, says: “At the kingfisher door-curtain people are quiet and the moon-light drifts, but it’s half rolled-up on its silver hooks.”
ii) a term siginifying “vigorously ‘snapping’ forceful calligraphic stroke”. Pai Chü-yi 白居 易 (772 - 846), in his poem Cock-spur writing-brush rhapsody (Chi-chü pi fu 雞距筆賦), has the lines: “Grasping it, it changes into a gold spur, Writing with it, it magics into silver hooks.” Calligraphy hunting-park (Shu-yȕan 書苑) says: “So Ching 索靖 [239 - 393] of the Tsin dynasty was unrivalled in his age for Grass-script Calligraphy, which was termed ‘silver hooks and ch’ai-scorpions’ tails (ch’ai-wei 蠆尾)’.”
349Ling-wu 靈武, the name of various counties and commanderies:
i)the counties:
a) set up during the Han dynasty, and abolished during the Eastern Han dynasty. Its old administrative city was north-west of present-day Ning-sho county in Ning-hsia province, its territory including Ling-wu Valley (Ling-wu-ku 靈武谷), to which during the Eastern Han dynasty the general Tuan Chiung 段熲 (AD? - AD 179) pursued the Ch’iang 羌 barbarians.
b) set up by the Tsin dynasty, and abolished by Latter Wei dynasty, its old administrative city being situated east of present-day Hsien-yang city in Shensi province.
c) called Hun-huai-chang 渾懷障 during the Han dynasty, it was a seat of administration of a Defender (tu-wei 都尉). The Sui dynasty set up a Ling-wu county there, its old administrative city being north-east of present-day P’ing-lo county in Ning-hsia province.
d) called Hu-ti city (Hu-ti-ch’eng 胡地城), “Barbarian-land city”, during the Northern/ Latter Wei dynasty, because, when Emperor Grand-warrior (T’ai-wu-ti 太武帝, reigned 424 - 452) defeated the Hsiung-nu 匈奴 He-lien Ch’ang 赫連昌 of the Great Hsia dynasty (Ta Hsia 大夏, 407 - 431), he transferred Hsiung-hu households there.
Early in the T’ang dynasty, they were moved to be administered from Ling-wu county, where, during the Rebellion of An Lu-shan, w
hen Emperor Dark-progenitor fled to Shu 蜀, the Szechwan region, Emperor Solemn-progenitor ascended the throne. This county was later abolished.
ii)The commanderies:
a)set up by the Latter Wei dynasty, and later abolished. In the region of present-day Chieh-hsiu county in Shansi province.
b) the Sui dynasty changed the name of the Northern Chou dynasty P’u-le commandery (P’u-le-ch’ȕn 普樂郡) to Ling-wu commandery. Its seat of administration was Hui-le 迴樂, south-west of present-day Ning-wu county in Ning-hsia province.
iii)The name of a present-day county, north-east of Ching-chi county in Ning-hsia province, and situated on the east bank of the Yellow River. The Latter Wei dynasty set up a Ling-chou 靈州, the former administrative city of which was situated south-west of the present-day county. During the Sung dynasty, it fell to the Hsi Hsia 西夏. The Yȕan dynasty set up a Ling-chou there again, and the Ming dynasty set up a Ling-chou Battalion (/Station) (Ling-chou-so 靈州所) there. The Ch’ing dynasty called it Ling-chou again, putting it under Ning-hsia prefecture (Ning-hsia-fu 寧夏府) in Kansu province. Early in the Republic it was changed to Ling-wu county.
350Li Kui-nien 李龜年 (8th cenury AD), a skilled musician and famous court music-master. He once went to the residence of the Prince of Ch’i (Ch’i-wang 岐王) and, hearing ch’in dulcimers being played in other rooms, and what Shen Yen 沈珍 of Lung-hsi 隴西 was playing, he declared, “That’s Ch’in 秦 music!”, and hearing what Hsueh Man 薛滿 of Yang-chou 楊州 was playing, declared, “That’s Ch’u 楚 music!”, in both cases able correctly to tell the regions from which the music, and the two players, derived. Besides being an accomplished singer, he was also an expert at composing melodies, and at playing the Chieh drum (chieh-ku 羯鼓) and the nine-holed pi-li shawm (pi-li觱篥). During the reign of Emperor Dark-progenitor (reigned 712 - 756), he served in the imperial Pear Orchard (Li-yȕan 梨園) conservatoire. His compositions included the exquisite Wei-chou melody (Wei-chou ch’ü 椒州曲). After the Rebellion of An Lu-shan, he drifted in straitened circumstances in Yangtse-south (Chiang-nan 江南), i.e. the region between the River Yangtse and River Hsiang. Cheng Ch’u-hui 鄭處誨 (fl. ca. AD 844), Miscellaneous records of Shining August-emperor (Ming-huang tsa-lu 明皇雜錄), says: “During the Open-origin reign-period [713 - 741], the musicians (yüeh-kung 樂工) Li Kui-nien, Li P’eng-nien 李彭年 and Li He-nien 李鶴年 were three brothers who were greatly celebrated for their ability and learning. Li P’eng-nien was skilled at dancing, and Li He-nien and Li Kui-nien were good at singing. The River Wei (Wei-ch’uan 渭川) that they composed was especially exquisite, and they received special attention and treatment from the emperor. In later days, when Li Kui-nien ended up drifting into hard times in Yangtse-south, and, whenever there happened to be fine days or splendid gatherings to enjoy scenery, he would sing a few songs for the people at them, and all of the present listeners would without exception have to hide their tears and cease their wine-drinking.”
Appendices and Endnotes Page 27
