During the Open-origin reign-period [713 - 741], tree-peonies (mu shao-yao 木芍藥), the same as what we now call mu-tan 牡丹, were planted in the forbidden precincts of the imperial palace. It was found that several tubers had produced red, scarlet, pink and pure white flowers, and the Emperor ordered that they be transplanted to the east of Celebration Pond in front of Eagle wood Pavilion.
At the first, profuse, blossoming of the flowers, the Emperor rode Shining-the-night-white [name of a horse] there, his imperial wives coming by foot-carriages in attendance upon him, and commanded a selection of outstanding students of the Pear Orchard [imperial conservatoire] to appear, producing experts in sixteen kinds of music. [The famous court music-master] Li Kui-nien, foremost of the age for singing, took hold of a sandalwood clapper his hand, brought the musicians forward, and was about to commence the singing, when the Emperor spoke:
“Since we’re now enjoying such splendid flowers and facing the imperial ladies,” he said, “surely we can’t use old lyrics!”
So he at once ordered Kui-nien to take in his hand a Gold-flowered Letter, and convey the imperial command to the Plume-forest Academician Li Pai that he was immediately to submit three lyrics in the Clear and Even Keys.
When he received this imperial command, Li Pai hadn’t yet got over a hangover from the previous night. But he at once raised his writing-brush, and composed, and Kui-nien bore the finished lyrics to submit them to the Emperor.
The Emperor ordered students of the Pear Orchard briefly to fit the words to tunes, and to play them on their strings and woodwind, then enjoined Kui-nien to sing the songs with them. Empress Grand-truth grasped a Young Pear-blossom Seven Treasures Goblet, filled it with grape wine from Hsi-liang-chou, and smiling led the singing with great emotional expression.
Then the Emperor himself played the jade flute to accompany the songs, provided a complete change [of music] for each song, and had the music slowed down to make it more bewitchingly beautiful.
When Grand-truth had drunk her wine, she drew together her broidered skirts, and made repeated obeisances. From that time on, the Emperor regarded Academician Li as the most outstandingly remarkable of the various academicians.
The account goes on to tell how the important court eunuch chamberlain Kao Li-shih, an enemy of Li Pai s since the latter once forced him to pull off his, Pai’s, boots, used a line in the poems to turn Empress Yang against Pai, which resulted in Pai’s never being able to obtain a governmental post at court, even though the Emperor thrice wished to award him office.
The first poem opens by comparing Empress Yang to flowers and the second repeats this comparison, while the third at one and the same time introduces both peonies and Empress Yang. Thus the poems, as might be expected, are principally in praise of Empress Yang, with the peonies being treated merely as a foil for her charms. There’s an interesting progression through the three stanzas: from immortal abodes, to the Han palace, to the Bower in the T’ang palace, i.e. from the remoteness of the supernatural, to the remoteness of antiquity, the less remote being the human, to the actuality the final stanza. Discounting, if we may, the possibility of satire, the poems seem to be a subtle and skillful eulogy to Empress Yang, which must indeed have earned Emperor Dark-progenitor’s appreciation.
The poems go:
In praise of peonies and Most-prized-empress
Dress minds of clouds, face minds of blossoms,
Where dew hangs heavy,
and spring breeze wafts balustrade;
Such as is met, if not mid Heaven’s Jewelled Hills,
In Paradise, ‘neath moonlight,
aloft in the Terrace Of Jade.
A sprig of Gorgeous Red,
with dew-frozen perfume!
Why rend one’s heart,
to Mount Wu’s cloud-rain love aspire?
Come tell me, please,
what rival had she in the palace of Han?
Poor Empress,
dependent on make-up and novel attire!
Wondrous flowers and state-toppling beauty,
together rejoiced in,
Ever winning their monarch’s glance,
that contemplates them smiling;
Both skilled to dispel
spring-breeze-borne
boundless love-time’s bitter yearning,
As north of Eaglewood Bower
they loll by the wooden railing.
613she-fu 射覆, Guess-the-covered:
i) Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), Han history (Han-shu 漢書, “Tung-fang Sho chuan”, says: “The emperor once had his various fortune-tellers Guess-the-covered.” A note to that says: “Various things were placed under a covered vessel, and one had to guess (an-she 暗射) what they were, which is why it was called Guess-the-covered.” At the end of this biography, there are the words: “Tung-fang Sho in his own ‘inscription’ (tsan 贊) says: ‘I once received Changes (Yi 易), and asked permission to Guess (she 射) them. …’”
Wang Hsien-Ch’ien 王先謙 (1842 - 1917), Supplementary notes to “Han history” (Han-shu pu-chu 漢書補注), says of that: “When Kuan Lu 管輅 [208 - 255] Guessed-the-covered, he too used the hexagramns of Changes.” Thus, according to that, Guess-the-covered was a game which used Changes classic divinations.
ii) the name of a kind of Wine-forfeit Game/ Wine-commands (chiu-ing 酒令) played by cultivated/ literary people (wen-jen 文人). It conceals words in parallel verse or prose and idioms as a puzzle for people to guess. … Collected jottings of Wine-commands (Chiu-ling ts’ung-ch’ao 酒令叢鈔) says: “The Guess-the-covered referred to wine-parties nowadays, and is also called Guess-kite-covered (she-tiao-fu 射雕覆), takes one word as the Kite, and the following one as the Covered. If the guess concentrates on the character for ‘wine’ (chiu 酒), then the character for ‘spring’ (ch’un 春) and ‘liquor’ (chiang 漿) are for the other person to guess at, the answer being ‘spring wine’, “New Year’s Wine’ (ch’un-chiu 春酒) or ‘wine-liquor’ (chiu-chiang 酒漿). If the guesser mentions a particular character, both sides understand the meaning.” Hardly a lucid translation, and awaits further investigation.
614ts’ang-chiu 藏鬮, Hide-the-clasp, a popular romantic game in ancient China. Lines from a poem by Li Shang-yin李商隱 (813 - 858) mention, “Joining the Princess of Han on the pillow, Playing Hide-the-clasp with the Empress of the Han [Han-hou 漢后].” Anon. (Six Dynasties), Old matters of Emperor Warrior of the Han dynasty (Han-Wu ku-shih 漢武故事), says: “When Lady/Queen Clasp [Kou-yi Fu-jen 鉤弋夫人] was young, her hand was balled into a fist. The emperor [Emperor Warrior (Wu-ti 武帝), reigned 140 BC - 87 BC] opened out her fingers, and found a jade hook (yü-kou 玉鉤), and her hand was able to unfold. Because of this the game of Hide-the-hook/-clasp (ts’ang-kou 藏鉤) was then devised, and later people imitated it.”
Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), Han history (Han-shu 漢書, gives a similar version: Under Emperor Warrior, the Chao family gave birth to a daughter whose hands were both clenched into fists. Some time later, the emperor while on tour summoned the girl before him, and was able to open out her hands. He took her as a wife, first calling her Lady Fist (Ch’uan Fu-jen 拳夫人), then later Lady/Queen Clasp (Kou-yi Fu-jen 鉤弋夫人. She became his empress, was housed in a Clasp Palace (Kou-yi-kung 鉤弋宮) and gave birth to his crown prince, called Clasp Son (Kou-yi-tzu 鉤弋子), who subsequently became the Emperor Resplendent (Chao-ti 昭帝, reigned 86 BC - 74 BC). When Emperor Warrior set him up as crown prince, the boy was very young, and the emperor found a pretext for ordering the empress to commit suicide, so that she would not be able to dominate his successor should he himself die before the boy had grown up.
Han-tan Ch’un 邯鄲淳 (AD 132 - AD?) in his Arts classic (Yi-ching 藝經) says: “After the drinking-sacrificial-service[?] on the eighth day of the lunar Twelfth Month of the year at Yi-yang [place-name, east of present-day T’ung-pai county in Henan province] the old men and women and the children play the game of Hide-the-hook/-cl
asp (ts’ang-kou chih-hsi 藏鉤之戲). They divide into two teams (ts’ao 曹) in a competition between the two. If there was an even number of them, the teams would match, while if there was an odd number of them, then one person would be a roving team-member, sometimes belonging to team A, and sometimes to team B, that person being called a Flying Bird (fei-niao 飛鳥) so as to make the number of people even for the two teams. A hook/clasp was hidden in several people’s hand, and the teams had to guess which hands they were in. One Hiding (ts’ang 藏) was one Tally (ch’ou 籌), and three Tallies made a Capital (tu 都).”
Chou Ch’u 周處 (240 - 299), Climate and agricultural conditions (Feng-t’u chi 風土記), gives the name of the game as Hide-the-ring (ts’ang-k’ou 藏彄), and often found as Hide-the-clasp (ts’ang-chiu 藏鬮). There was a whole, unfortunately non-extant, play devoted to the game, Hiding-the-clasp party (Ts’ang-chiu hui 藏鬮會) by Kuan Han-ch’ing 關漢卿 (ca. 1220 - ca. 1300).
The chiu 鬮 is sometimes explained as another character for kou 鉤, “hook”, “clasp”, sometimes as meaning “rolled up note on paper”, “lot”, but the former meaning is surely the one in the compound ts’ang-chiu.
The story of the game’s origins may of course have been a fabricated why-so tale.
615chin-lien 金蓮, “golden lotuses”:
i) Li Yen-shou 李延壽 (T’ang dynasty), Southern history (Nan-shih 南史), “Ch’i Tung-hun-hou chi”, says: “He also chiselled gold into lotus flowers and stuck them on the ground, and had Queen P’an (P’an-fei 潘妃) walk along them, and said: ‘This is a case of lotus flowers’ being born at your every step!’ So later people called girls’ or women’s “fibre-slender” feet (hsien-tsu 纖足) ‘golden lotuses’.”
ii) gold-coloured lotus-flowers. Observing “Endless-life Buddha sutra”/ Yoga Sukhavativyuha sutra/ Amitayus sutra (Kuan Wu-liang-shou Fo ching 觀無量壽佛經), says: “When the Acarin’s life was about to end, Amitabha Buddha and the various members of his family took gold lotus-flowers in their hands, and transformed them into the Five Hundred Transformed Buddhas (Wu-pai Hua-fo 五百化佛), who came out to receive this person.”
The term Gold Lotus-flower (chin-lien-hua 金蓮華) refers to the gold-coloured lotus-flower throne (t’ai-tso 臺座), the Lotus-flower Throne (lien-hua tso 蓮華祀座) being the constant throne (ch’ang-tso 常座) of the Buddha bodhisattva, and those who depart to be born in Amitabh’s Ultimate-joy World (Chi-le Shih-chieh 極樂世界) are always born from the middle of a lotus-flower, which is why they are received with a Lotus-flower Throne.
616Tung-ching 東京, the Eastern Capital:
i) Emperor High-progenitor (Kao-tsu 高祖, reigned 206 BC - 195 BC) founder of the Han dynasty made Ch’ang-an 長安 his capital, while Emperor Shining-warrior (Kuang-wu-ti 光武帝, reigned 25 - 57) made Lo-yang 洛陽 his capital, so people called Lo-yang the Eastern Capital, also calling it Tung-tu 東都, likewise meaning Eastern Capital or Eastern Metropolis, Ch’ang-an being referred to as the Western Capital (Hsi-ching 西京). The Eastern Han dynasty itself was later also referred to as the Eastern Capital (Tung-ching 東京). Fang Ch’iao 房喬 (579 - 648) and others (eds.), Tsin history (Chin-shu 晉書), “Ju-lin chuan”, says: “When it came to Emperor Warrior (Wu-ti 武帝. reigned 140 BC - 87 BC), the Confucian literati were esteemed, and by the time of the Eastern Capital, that vogue hadn’t fallen away.”
The Sui and T’ang dynasties also set up their Eastern Capital (Tung-ching), once changing its name to Eastern Capital (Tung-tu), it being located at the same spot as the old Han dynasty one.
ii) During the T’ang dynasty, the country of Po-hai 渤海 took Lung-yȕan prefectural city (Lung-yȕan-fu 龍原府) as its Eastern Capital (Tung-ching), which must have been located in the vicinity of present-day Hun-ch’un county in Kirin province.
iii) During the Tsin dynasty of the Five Dynasties period, Pien-chou 汴州 was elevated to be its Eastern Capital. The Five Dynasties Han and Chou dynasties followed that. It was present-day K’ai-feng city in Henan province. During the Northern Sung dynasty, too, K’ai-feng 開封 was called the Eastern Capital.
iv) At the beginning of the Liao dynasty, Liao-yang city (Liao-yang-ch’eng 遼陽城) was its Southern Capital (Nan-ching 南京), but was later changed to its Eastern Capital, its prefecture being called Liao-yang prefecture (Liao-yang-fu 遼陽府). The Kin dynasty changed the Liao’s Eastern Capital to its Southern Capital, later again changing it to the Eastern Capital., its prefecture still called Liao-yang prefecture. The Yȕan and Ming dynasties in succession altered and abolished it. The Ch’ing dynasty set up an Eastern Capital at the location, it being present-day Liao-yang county in Liao-ning province.
v) the Japanese capital Tokyo.
vi) the old name, Tonkin, for Indo-China.
617Shu 蜀, name of states in present-day Szechwan province.
i) In remote antiquity, it’s said, a bastard son of the demi-god world-ruler Ti K’u 帝嚳 (mythical Wu-ti-chi ruler, traditionally reigned 2436 BC - 2367 BC) was enfiefed with Shu, becoming the Marquis/ Lord of Shu (Shu-hou 蜀侯). Surviving through the Hsia, Shang and Chou dynasties, it was destroyed by Ch’in 秦, which set up a Shu province (Shu-ch’ȕn 蜀郡). Shu’s capital was in present-day Ch’eng-tu city in Szechwan province.
ii) During the reign-period 14 - 19 of the Hsin dynasty of Wang Mang 王莽, Kung-sun Shu 公孫茂 set himself up as King of Shu, ruling all the area of Yi-chou 益州, with Ch’eng-tu 成都 as his capital. This state was destroyed by the Eastern Han dynasty.
iii) During the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Pei 劉備 (161 - 223) set up the state of Shu Han 蜀漢, known as Shu for short, ruling the territory of Yi-chou, Liang-chou 梁州 and Chiao-chou 交州, that’s to say the whole of present-day Szechwan province, the northern part of Yunnan province, the northern part of Kweichow province, and the Han-chung 漢中 region of Shensi province, with Ch’eng-tu, present-day Ch’eng-tu city, as his capital. He reigned 221 - 223. His son and successor, Liu Ch’an 劉禪, was mediocre, timid and lacking initiative, and the state was destroyed by the state of Wei 魏. It lasted 221 - 263, altogether forty-three years.
618Lung-wu Chiang-chȕn 龍武將軍, Dragon-warrior General of the Right, title of a general of the Dragon-warrior Army (Lung-wu-chȕn 龍武軍), created as semi-official elite units in AD 710, then in AD 738 put on a regular standing. Until AD 757 one of the imperial Four Armies (Ssu-chȕn 四軍), thereafter as two of the imperial Six Armies (Liu-chȕn 六軍), a major part of the Northern Command (Pei-ya 北衙). Later still also as units of the imperial Ten Armies (Shih-chȕn 十軍).
619Ch’en Yȕan-li 陳元禮 (fl. ca. AD 750), a T’ang dynasty general. Ssu-ma Kuang 司馬光 (1019 - 1186), Comprehensive mirror to assist good government (Tzu-chih t’ung-chien 資治通鑒) (AD 1085), “T’ang-chi 34”, says: “Yang Kuo-chung 楊國忠 sent [the Queens of the States of] Han 韓 and Kuo 虢 into the palace to try and persuade the emperor to go into Shu. That night, the emperor moved his insignia cortege into Northern Inner Palace, and commanded the Grand Dragon-warrior General Ch’en Yȕan-li to set in order the Six Armies, to liberally provide them with gifts of money and silk, and to select nine hundred or so horses of the Imperial-palace Corrals and Stables (hsien-chiu 閑廄), without the knowledge of any outsiders.
At dawn on the day yi-wei 乙未, the emperor, alone except for Most-prized-empress Yang (Yang Kui-fei 楊貴妃), her sisters, the crown prince’s queen in charge of the imperial grandsons, Yang Kuo-chung, Wei Chien-su 韋見素, Ch’en Yȕan-li and close eunuch mandarins and palace ladies, went out through Inviting-autumn Gate. Those out with the queen in charge of the imperial grandsons were all sent away.”
620Shu-tao nan 蜀道難, Hardships of the road to Shu, a famous tune-title, with some famous poems to it. The title of a tune of the Se-dulcimer Mode Melodies (Se-tiao-ch’ü 瑟調曲) of the Music Treasury (yȕeh-fu 樂府) genre of Chinese poetry. Kuo Mao-Ch’ien 郭茂倩 (Sung dynasty), Collection of the lyrics of Music Treasury song
s (Yȕeh-fu shih-chi 樂府詩集), says: “Elucidating the titles of Music Treasury songs (Yȕeh-fu chieh-t’i 樂府解題) says: ‘Hardships of the road to Shu is all about the barriers of Bronze Bridge (T’ung-liang 銅梁) [a mountain south of present-day He-ch’uan county in Szechwan province] and Jade Fortress (Yü-lei 玉壘) [a mountain in present-day Hsin Pass south-east of Li-fan county in Szechwan province], and is quite similar to State of Shu strings (Shu-kuo hsien 蜀國絃).’ Record of conversations on “History classic” (Shang-shu t’an-lu 尚書談錄) says: ‘Li Pai 李白 [701 - 762] composed his Hardships of the road to Shu in order to accuse Yen Wu 嚴武 [726-765, child murderer of his father’s secondary wife, and later a powerful rapacious minister and successful general] of crimes, and, later on, when Lu Ch’ang 陸暢 paid a respectful visit to Wei Kao 韋皋 [745 - 805, general and high-ranking mandarin] in Shu commandery, he was inspired by Wei Kao’s career to invert the wording to a tz’u-lyric entitled Ease of the road to Shu (Shu-tao yi 蜀道易).’ I note that Bronze Bridge and Jade Fortress were in the south-west of Shu Circuit-region, that being the Yung-k’ang 永康of nowadays, not in ‘Shu commandery’, which is far off the mark.”
621Hung Sheng here gives a note saying that this line derives from a poem by Lu Lun 盧綸 [fl. ca. AD 773].
622Hung Sheng here gives a note saying that this line derives from a poem by Wu Jung 吳融 [AD? - ca. AD 903].
623i.e. high and beautiful.
624Of palace female entertainers, or the voice of Empress Yang.
625Ch’eng-tu 成都, the name of various locations and administrative regions:
i) name of a prefecture, Ch’eng-tu-fu (Ch’eng-tu fu 成都府). The Ch’in dynasty set up a Shu commandery (Shu-chȕn 蜀郡), which the Han and Sui dynasties retained. It was abolished by the Sui dynasty. The T’ang and later dynasties established a Cheng-tu prefecture in the region, which the Sung dynasty retained, and which the Yȕan dynasty changed into a Ch’eng-tu Route-command Region (Ch’eng-tu-lu 成都路). The Ming dynasty restored it as the prefecture, and the Ch’ing dynasty kept the prefecture, putting it under Szechwan province, its administrative seat being the two cities of Ch’eng-tu and Hua-yang 華陽 counties, they controlling thirteen counties: Ch’eng-tu, Hua-yang, Shuang-liu 雙流, Wen-chiang 温江, Hsin-fan 新繁, Chin-t’ang 金堂, Hsin-tu 新都, P’i 郫, Kuan 灌, P’eng 彭, Ch’ung-ning 崇寧, Hsin-chin 新津 and Shih-fang 什邡, and the three chou 州 regions of Chien 簡, Han 漢 and Ch’ung-ch’ing 重慶. It was abolished by the Republic.
Appendices and Endnotes Page 36
