Appendices and Endnotes

by William Dolby

  1045Shuang-ch’eng 雙成, Pair-fulfillment. Name of a god in the service of Royal Mother of the West.

  1046hua-mao 花貌, Flower Looks, a poetic term for “beautiful woman”, in this case referring to Empress Yang. The term Flower Face (hua-mien 花面) can sometimes have a similar meaning. Li Tuan 李端 (fl. ca. AD 785) has a poem with the line: “Arranges her temple-tresses and reports to the Flower Face.”

  1047hsü-k’ung 虛空:

  i) “empty void”, like “void emptiness” (k’ung-hsü 空虛), a Buddhist term, used as an image for the invisible forces of the cosmos.

  ii) Void Firmament, i.e. Space. Wu Tao-yȕan 吳道原 (fl. ca. AD 1004), Record of passing on the lamp (Ch’uan-teng lu 傳燈錄), in AD 1004, says: “Leapt his body into the Void Firmament, and went through eighteen transformations.”

  1048ch’u-chien 驅遣, “to send/despatch/drive away on a mission”. The Ancient Poem Composed for the wife of Chiao Chung-ch’ing (Wei Chiao Chung-ch’ing ch’i tso 為焦仲卿妻作) has the lines: “Again instead you’re sent on a mission: Why say you’ll be coming back!” It also has the lines: “Today I’ve been sent on a mission: Mistress you’re better off than me.”

  1049tuan-hsien 斷絃, “broken string (of a musical instrument)”, “to have a string break”. Yȕan Chen元稹 (779-831) has a poem with the lines: “Of orphaned lone dulcimer in its secluded case, often pings the sound of broken string.” Later, the term cam to be used as an image for “dead wife”, being a kind of extension of the image of husband and wife as “dulcimer and se-dulcimer”. ch’in-se 琴瑟, “ch’in dulcimer and .se-dulcimer”, an image for a married couple who live in perfect harmony with each other. Anon. (early and mid 1st millennium BC), Songs classic (Shih-ching 詩經), no. 82, end of second verse, has the lines: “I’ll be with you through old age, the two of us together, a dulcimer and ch’in-dulcimer being played together, everything without exception will be tranquil and fine.” In poem no. 1 of the same anthology, the last lines of its fourth verse are: “Wafty, willowy, virgin maiden: As dulcimer to zither we’re attuned in our affections.” Lines 3 and 4 of stanza 7 of poem number 167 go: “When one gets on well with one’s wife, It’s like se-dulcimer and ch’in-dulcimer being played in harmony together.” Cheng Hsȕan 鄭玄 (127 - 200) in his comment on this latter couplet says: “It’s like the sounds/ notes of playing the ch’in-dulcimer and se-dulcimer respond to each other in harmony.”

  The opposite term to “broken string” or “to have a broken string” is “joined string”, to join up a string” (hsü-hsien 續絃), a popular term for “a new wife after the death of one’s previous wife”, “to remarry after the death of one’s wife”. External biography of Emperor Warrior of the Han dynasty (Han Wu wai-chuan 漢武外傳.) says: “The Western Ocean region presented the emperor with a gift of roc-glue (luan-chiao 鸞膠), and the emperor’s bow-string (hsien 弦) having broken, he joined the two ends of the string together again with the glue, and they stuck together, he shooting with it all day long without it breaking.” Clearly the two hsien characters in these two terms, meaning “instrumental string” and “bow-string”, came to be used interchangeably, or in convergence.

  1050Huang-kuan 黃冠, Yellow Hat:

  i) the name of a hat worn by farmers. Tai Sheng 戴聖 (early first century BC) (comp.), Rites record (Li-chi 禮記), “Chiao t’e-sheng”, says: “They sacrifice in yellow robes and yellow hats, which are a reward for famers. Men of the countryside wear yellow hats, the yellow hat being a straw garment.” Sun Hsi-tan 孫希旦 (AD 1736-AD?), Collected elucidations of “Rites record” (Li-chi chi-chieh 禮記集解), says: “The yellow hat was a type of “terraced rain-hat” (t’ai-li 臺笠), its colour being yellow.”

  ii) name of “a Taoist priest’s kind of hat”. Yin Yao-fan 殷堯藩 (fl. ca. AD 827), in his poem Palace-lady becomes a Taoist (Kung-jen ju-tao宮人入道), has the lines: “Discarding her palace attire and brocade and embroidered dress, her yellow hat and plain white raw-silk robe are made in seemly style.”

  iii) Later on, Yellow hat was also a term for Taoist priest. T’ang Ch’iu 唐求 (fl. ca. AD 906), in his poem Inscription on Fan-hsien Taoist Monastery on Mount Ch’ing-ch’eng (T’i Ch’ing-ch’eng-shan Fan-hsien-kuan 題青城山范賢觀), has the lines: “Several li-miles of dark-green mountains I don’t object to the hardships, in order to find the true rhymed formula, I ask the Yellow Hat.”

  1051i.e. getting right to the bottom of the natter.

  1052tung-fu 洞府, “cave mansion/palace”, i.e. a palace of a paradise accessed through a cave. Emperor Yang-ti of the Sui dynasty has a poem with the lines: “In the Cave Palace the Dark Liquid’s frozen, On the Spirit Mountain my body’s spontaneous free.”

  1053 Tung-chi 東極, Easten Limit.

  1054chü-hai 巨海, giant/mighty sea/ocean.

  1055A phrase from Hsȕn K’uang 荀況 (ca. 315 BC - ca. 236 BC), Sir Hsȕn (Hsȕn-tzu 荀子）.

  1056Po 渤, i.e. Po Sea, (Po-hai 渤海). The name Po-hai means:

  i) the name of a sea. Hsü Shen 許慎 (30 - 124), Explaining writing and elucidating characters (Sho-wen chieh-tzu 說文解字), produced in AD 100, writes the Po as 郣. Ssu-ma Ch’ien 司馬遷 (ca. 145 BC - ca. 85 BC), Historians’ records (Shih-chi 史記), Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92), History of the [Former] Han (Han-shu 漢書), Liu An 劉安 (?BC - 122 BC), Sir Huai-south (Huai-nan Tzu 淮南子), and Anon. (late Chou dynasty and Han dynasty), Mountains and seas classic (Shan-hai ching 山海經), all write it as 勃. Ting Tu 丁度 (990 - 1053) and others (eds.), Assembled rhymes (Chi-yun 集韻), writes it as 渤, and it’s sometimes found as 漖. In ancient times, it was called Po-hsieh 渤澥, and has also been called Ts’ang-hai 滄海 and North Sea (Pei-hai 北海). Located to the north-east of China, beyond it lying the Yellow Sea (Huang-hai 黃海), it’s formed by the encirclement of the two peninsular of Shantung and Liaotung, and the two provinces Liaoning and Hopeh and the northern part of Shantung province all border this sea.

  ii) The name of a country. Established during the reign of Empress Wu of the T’ang and Wu-chou dynasties by Ta-tso-jung 大祚榮, chief of the Su-mo 粟末 tribe of the Mo-he 靺鞨 people. At its height, its territory covered from south of the River Sung-chiang as far as the Sea of Japan. During the Five Dynasties period, it was destroyed by the Liao dynasty, but survived under the name Tung-tan 東丹.

  iii) the name of commanderies (chȕn 郡):

  a) one set up during the Han dynasty, its territory covering the land west of present-day Ts’ang county in Hopeh province, east of He-chien county, and south of An-tz’u county, both in the same province, and north of Wu-ti county in Shantung province. Its administrative seat was Fu-yang 浮陽, in the east of present-day Ts’ang county.

  b) During the Eastern Han dynasty, the administrative seat was changed to Nan-p’i 南皮, the old city being north-east of present-day Nan-p’i county. Under the Southern Dynasties Sung dynasty, an external seat was set up, Lin-chi 臨濟 city, situated in the area of present-day Kao-yȕan and Lin-tzu counties in Shantung province. It was abolished by the Northern Ch’i dynasty.

  iv) at the beginning of the Sui dynasty, a Ti-chou 棣州 was set up, which later was changed to Po-hai commandery (Po-hai-chȕn 渤海郡). Its administrative city was south of present-day Yang-hsin county in Shantung province. The T’ang dynasty restored Ti-chou there.

  1057Lin-feng-chou 麟鳳洲, Unicorn-phoenix Island, i.e. Feng-lin-chou 鳳麟洲, Phoenix-unicorn Island, the name of a paradise. Tung-fang Sho 東方朔 (ca. 161 BC - ca. 87 BC) (attr., but probably by anon. Six Dynasties author), Ten islands (Shih-chou chi 十洲記), says: “Phoenix-unicorn Island is situated in the middle of the Western Sea (Hsi-hai 西海), There are a lot of phoenixes, unicorns and divine medicines (shen-yao 神藥). The immortals boil phoenix beaks and unicorn horns, and fry them together into an ointment/ paste, called String-joining Glue (hsü-hsien-chiao 續弦膠), and sometimes called Metal-joining Clay (lien-chin-n 連金泥). This glue is good for joining up
broken strings of bows and crossbows. The broken or snapped off metal of broken knives and swords is, moreover, joined up with this glue, and if strongmen are put to pulling them apart, they break in other places, and the juncture where they’ve been joined up never breaks. The colour of the glue is as dark green as green jade.”

  1058P’eng Lang shan 蓬閬山, Mounts Erigeron and High-gate, i.e. the mountains of mountain-island paradises Erigeron-chenopodium and High-gate Hunting-park. See notes above.

  1059hui-p’u 蕙圃, hui-orchid small-holding. The hui has two meanings:

  i) defined as sweet-grass (hsiang ts’ao 香草), and as Coumarouna odorata (hsȕn-ts’ao 薰草). The hsȕn-ts’ao is defined as the name of an herbaceous plant of the bean family. Anon. (late Chou dynasty and Han dynasty), Mountains and seas classic (Shan-hai ching 山海經), says: “On Floating Mountain (Fu-shan 浮山) there’s a plant called hsȕn, which has a hemp leaf and square stems, crimson flowers and black seeds, and a smell like Gracilaria confervoides, Grev. (mi-wu 蘼蕪), and if one wears it at one’as waist, it can cure scrofula.”

  Li Shih-chen 李時珍 (1518 - 1593), Detailed systematic outline of herbs (Pen-ts’ao kang-mu 本草綱目), “Ts’ao-pu”, “Hsȕn-ts’ao”, also has such names as Coumarouna odorata, Aubl. (ling-ling-hsiang 零陵香) and hui, Li Shih- chen says: “Ancient people burned scents to bring down spirits (chiang-shen 降神), which is why they spoke of hsȕn and hui, the hsȕn meaning ‘to permeate with scent’, and the hui meaning ‘to harmonise’ (he 和). [Pan Ku 班固 (32 - 92),] History of the [Former] Han (Han-shu 漢書) talks of, ‘permeating with scent, one naturally uses this’”

  Li further cites Su Sung 蘇頌 (1020 - 1101) as saying: “Coumarouna odorata, Aubl. is found in the regions of both Hu 湖 and Kuang 廣, it mostly growing in low-lying damp ground. Its leaves are like those of hemp, facing each other two on two, its stems being square, and it always blossoms in the middle ten days of the Seventh Month of the year, its flowers being sweet-smelling in the utmost. This is what in ancient times was called hsȕn-ts’ao.”

  The common name for it nowadays is Worn-at-the-waist Orchid (p’ei-lan 佩蘭).”

  Ch’ü Yȕan 屈原 (ca. 340BC - 278 BC), Sorrows of disaffection (Li-sao 離騷), has the line: “No mere threading garlands of Coumarouna odorata (hui) and: Heracleum lanatum [the root of Dahurian angelica in Chinese medicine] (ch’ai 茝 [i.e. pai-ch’ai 白茝)!” Wang Yi 王逸 (fl. ca. 114 - 142) notes to that: “Hui and ch’ai are both sweet-smelling plants.”

  Hung Hsing-tsu 洪興祖 (1090 - 1155), Supplementary notes to “Ch’u elegies” (Ch’u-tz’u pu-chu 楚辭補注), cites Chang Chi 張機 (ca. 150 - 219), Hua T’o 華陀 (Eastern Han dynasty), and others [putative attribution], Herbs (Pen-ts’ao 本草), as saying: “Hsȕn-ts’ao is also called hui-ts’ao.”

  ii) the name of a kind of lan 蘭. Also called hui-lan 蕙`蘭. It has the same-shaped leaves as cymbidium/ orchid (ts’ao-lan 草蘭), but slightly more slender and longer, blooming in late spring, with eight or nine flowers on one stem, their scent inferior to that of cymbidium (lan 蘭), and their colour also somewhat paler.

  1060chih-t’ien 芝田, fomes-fungus farm-field. The chih 芝 means:

  i) according to Hsü Shen 許慎 (30 - 124), Explaining writing and elucidating characters (Sho-wen chieh-tzu 說文解字), produced in AD 100, “a supernatural plant” (shen-ts’ao 神草).

  ii) a kind of fungus that grows on withered trees. Li Shih-chen 李時珍 (1518 - 1593), Detailed systematic outline of herbs (Pen-ts’ao kang-mu 本草綱目), says that it has six colours of flower (dark blue, crimson, yellow, black, white, scarlet/purple), and in ancient times was considered an auspicious plant (jui-ts’ao 瑞草), which, if one partook of it, would enable one to become immortal. For that reason, it was also called ling-chih 靈芝, “spirit chih”, found defined as tz’u-chih 紫芝, “scarlet/purple chih”, Fomes japonica, a fungus parasitic to trees that have withered and died, firm of substance, not rotting (hence the notion of its inducing immortality perhaps).

  It has at the top of its stem a semi-circular “rain-hat/umbrella”, the top surface of which is partly dark brown, with some shininess/ sheen and cloud-patterns, the under-side of it being rough of texture, white or light brown. The “handle” of the “rain-hat”, i.e. the stem, is also shiny, as if painted with lacquer. See Flower mirror (Hua-ching 花鏡).

  iii) Meaning “canopy” or “little canopy”, the usage said to derive from the form of the written character. Chang Heng 張衡 (78 - 139), Pondering on the Obscurity rhapsody (Ssu-hsȕan fu 思玄賦), has the line: “To the left green carved (ch’ing-tiao 青雕) with bullocks and chih.” A note to that says: “It means a little canopy.”

  iv) interchangeable with chih 芷, meaning pai-chih 白芷, i.e. Heracleum lanatum, Dahurian angelica.

  1061Kang-feng 罡風, Kang Wind. Also written as Kang-feng 剛風, “Hard Wind”, a Taoist term for “wind of the highest air”. Li Kuang-ti 李光地 (1642 - 1718) et alia (on imperial commission) (comp.), Sir Chu’s complete collected writings (Chu-tzu ch’ȕan-shu 朱子全書), “Li-ch’i”, says: “I’m asked if the sky has a shape and substance. My reply is that it’s just a whirlwind, soft at the bottom and hard at the top, which Taoist priests refer to as the Hard Wind.”

  The kang is also written as [罡 with knife on left], as in Hard Breath-energy/ Hard Air [Kang-ch’i (罡 with knife on left) 炁], of which Ke Hung (284 - 363), Sir Hugger of the Uncarved Woodblock (Pao-p’u-tzu 抱樸子,) says: “Rising forty li-miles upwards, it’s called the Grand Purity (T’ai-ch’ing 太清). In the middle of the Grand Purity, the air is extremely hard, and can bear humans. The master says that the reason why, when kites [the birds] fly and turn into the heights, they automatically advance by simply stretching out their two wings straight, no longer fanning or shaking them whatsoever, is because they ride the Hard Air.” The Hard Air is also popularly known as the Hard Wind (Kang-feng 剛風).

  1062wan-ta ts’ang-ming 梚大滄溟, bowl-big Blue Sea. The “bowl-big” presumably just means “very big”, but, Blue Sea here refers to the colour of the sea-water. In one of his poems, Tu Fu 杜 甫 (712 - 770) has the line: “The whale vigorously breaks the Blue Sea.” Kao Shih 高適 (702 - 765) has a poem with the line: “The River Lai enters the Blue Sea.”

  There are other similar expressions. ts’ang-hai shih 蒼海事, “(dark) blue sea happenings”. The characters ts’ang 蒼, ts’ang 蒼 and ts’ang 倉 are often interchangeable, and sometimes designate quite varying colours. Tung-fang Sho 東方朔 (ca. 161 BC - ca. 87 BC) (attr., but probably by anon. Six Dynasties author), Ten islands (Shih-chou chi 十州記), says: “Blue-sea Island (Ts’ang-hai-tao 滄海島) is in the middle of the North Sea (Pei-hai 北海), and the water is all a bluish-grey/grey/dark green/grass colour (ts’ang-se 蒼色), and the immortals call it the Bluish-grey Sea (Ts’ang-hai 蒼海).” This clearly takes ts’ang 滄 as meaning ts’ang 蒼, the colour.

  There’s also the expression “bluish-grey sea and mulberry-tree fields” (ts’ang-hai sang-t’ien 滄海桑田). Ke Hung 葛洪 (284 - 363), Biographies of immortals (Shen-hsien chuan 神仙傳), says: “Hemp Aunt (Ma-ku 麻姑) said to Wang Fan-p’ing 王方平: ‘Since I took up attendance, I’ve already seen the East Sea (Tung-hai 東海) three times become mulberry-tree fields. Recently when I went to Erigeron-chenopodium (P’eng-lai 蓬萊) [paradise isle], the water was shallow, shallower than in the past, and it may frequently be about half its full depth. Surely it’s not going to return to being raised land again, is it!’” Later ages took this phrase “bluish-grey sea and mulberry-tree fields”, or just the term “blue-grey and mulberry-trees” (ts’ang-sang 蒼桑), as a term for “speedy upheaval/ change in the world’s affairs”.

  Ts’ang-hai yi-chu 滄海遺珠, “a pearl (is) lost in the blue-grey ocean”, an idiom which alludes to a noble-minded and able man’s being neglected and not given recognition as such in his times. T’ang history (T’ang-shu唐書), “Ti Jen-chieh chuan”, says: “Ti Je
n-chieh 狄仁傑 [630 - 700] was recommended to the imperial court in the Classicist category, and was appointed Adjutant of Pien-chou, where the subordinate officers falsely made complaints against him, and he was dismissed. Yen Li-pen 閻立本 was sent to summon him to court and question him, and Yen admired him for his ability, and apologised to him. ‘Confucius [Lun-yü 4/7],’ he said, ‘said that by observing a man’s errors you’ll know whether he’s kindly good or not. You, sir, may indeed be said to be a pearl lost in the blue-grey ocean!’”

  1063Ch’i-chou 齊州:

  i) Middle Region/Land, i.e. the Central States: China. Anon. (Chou and Han dynasties), Close exegeses/standards (Erh-ya 爾雅), “Shih-ti”, says: “South of Ch’i-chou.” A note to that says: “Ch’i means ‘middle’.” And further commentary says: “Middle Region (Chung-chou 中州) is like saying Central States (Chung-kuo 中國).”

  ii) The name of a chou administrative region, set up during the Latter Wei dynasty, the Sui dynasty changing it to Ch’i comandary (Ch’i-chȕn 齊郡). The T’ang dynasty restored its name to Ch’i-chou, the Sung dynasty calling it Ch’i-chou Chi-nan commandery (齊州濟南郡), promoting it to Chi-nan prefecture (Chi-nan-fu 濟南府). Its administrative seat was present-day Li-ch’eng county in Shantung province.

  1064Chiu-tien 九點, nine dots, said by note to signify the Nine Regions (Chiu-chou 九州). This line reflects a line of a poem by Li He 李賀 (791 - 817), Dreaming of Heaven (Meng-t’ien 夢天): “Gazing afar at Ch’i-chou’s nine dots of mist.”

  The term Chiu-chou has various meanings:

  i)In ancient times, people divided the world into Nine Regions, with separate definitions:

  a)K’ung Ch’iu 孔丘 (551 BC - 479 BC) (ed.), History classic (Shu-ching 書經), “Yü-kung 禹貢”, gives the nine as: Chi 冀, Yen 兗, Ch’ing 青, Hsü 徐, Yang 揚, Ching 荊, Yü 豫, Liang 梁 and Yung 雍. K’ung An-kuo 孔安國 (fl. ca. 156 BC - 74 BC), Commentaries on “History” (Shu-chuan 書傳) [apocryphal], asserts that during the reign of the [mythical world-ruler] Yellow Emperor territory was cut up to distribute among Nine Regions. Kung’s exegesis says: “The Nine Regions must belong to the old stipulations, but the ‘Yü-kung’. talking of [mythical world-ruler] Yü’s dividings-up, is because [mythical world-ruler] Yao encountered floods, and everything was altered, which is simply why it talks of dividings-up.”