by Gopal Sukhu
272
“If their eyes cannot tell one plant from another,
How could they appraise the quality of jade?
They gather dung and soil into scent bags and wear them,
And call Shen pepper unfragrant.”70
I wanted to follow Ling Fen’s auspicious oracle,
But my heart swithered in doubt.
Shaman Xian was bound to descend that evening,
So I welcomed her with crossed lapels stuffed with pepper and rice.71
280
Her spirit crowd, like a vast canopy, descended over us,
As the spirits of Nine Doubts thronged to welcome her.
The Majestic One manifesting her power in blazing light,
Told me why the oracle was auspicious:
She said, “Force yourself to ascend and descend, search high and low,
Till you find someone whose try square is as true as yours.
Tang and Yu earnestly sought their match in others,
And with Zhi and Gao Yao they found harmony.72
288
“As long as they saw one bent on beautifying the heart,
What need had they to send the matchmakers?
Though Yue labored pounding earth walls at Fuyan,73
Wu Ding made him his minister and had no doubts.
“Though Lü Wang swung a butcher’s knife at Zhaoge,74
When he met Wen of Zhou he managed to rise high.
Ning Qi sang.75
Duke Huan of Qi heard, and brought him back to complete his staff.
296
“Avail yourself of your still abundant years;
Your time is not yet past.
Fear only that the cuckoo might call before then,76
Causing all the herbs to lose their fragrance.
“How intricate and majestic your belt of jade-tree branches,
The screenlike crowd will block it from view.
Be mindful—members of the cabal are not to be trusted;
I fear that they in their envy will tear it off you.
304
“The times are in the snarl and snag of change—
Why delay your departure longer?
The thoroughwort root has turned, fragrant no more.
Lure leaf and basil have gone to straw.
“Why where fragrant herbs grew yesterday,
mere sagebrush and mugwort grow today?
What other reason can it be
Than the treachery of scorners of true adornment.”
312
I thought Thoroughwort was one on whom I could rely,
But she yields no fruit, being mere ornament.
She rejected her own beauty to follow the vulgar;
She deserves no more to rank among the fragrant.
Pepper, master of flattery, is arrogant and insolent too.
And Prickly Ash’s fondest wish is to stuff herself into someone’s scent sachet.
They seek advancement—they work for favor.
What sort of fragrance can they muster?
320
Since it is the nature of the common run to go with the flow,
Who can last here uncorrupted?
See how Pepper and Thoroughwort are no different from the others?
How much worse Loosestrife and Lovage must be!
Think how precious this belt of ornaments is—
When the others rejected its beauty, it suffered as well,
But its far-reaching scent does not easily fade,
Its fragrance endures even today.
328
Adjusting my ways in accord with the oracle, I will find my own joy.
For the time being, I will wander free seeking a woman,
While my adornments still flourish,
Traveling everywhere, observing the high and the low.
After pronouncing the auspicious oracle,
Ling Fen divined an auspicious day for me to set forth,
And broke off a jade-tree branch to make his food offering to me,77
And ground the fallen fragments of jade for my travel grain.
336
And he harnessed flying dragons for me,
And made a chariot of yao stones and ivory.
How can hearts gone separate ways be joined again?
I will be the stranger now, and journey far away.
Turning my path back toward those Kunlun Mountains,
Up a long and spiraling road,
I unfurl the shade of clouds and rainbows over my head,
Jingling raucously my simurgh harness bells of jade,78
344
Setting forth from the Celestial Ford in the morning,79
Reaching the Western Limit by evening,80
With phoenixes winging in the train of my banners,81
Flapping and gliding aloft in orderly ranks.
Suddenly here I am traveling over Flowing Sands82
Then along Red Waters where I idle free,
Signaling the water dragons to bridge the ford with their forms,83
Summoning the August One of the West to guide me across.84
352
Aware that the journey would be long and perilous,
I order my convoy to clear the way straight to our destination,
To take the road past Imperfect Mountain and turn left,85
And I point to the Western Sea as our place to reassemble.86
Then I muster a thousand chariots to come with me,
Jade axle cap to jade axle cap we gallop abreast,
Driving eight undulating dragons,
Cloud banners flying in rolling waves.
360
Yet I restrain myself and slow down,
For my spirit speeds high into the vast distance,87
Where players play the Nine Songs—and dancers dance the Shao dances,
My spirit seizing the time to enjoy them.88
But as we ascend toward the effulgent festival of the August Ones,89
We suddenly catch sight of our former home below.
My chariot driver seems about to weep, my steeds, looking pensive,
Crane their necks to look back—they will go no farther.
368
Let us be clear:90
It is hopeless! The state has no statesmen!91 And no one sees value in me.92
Why remain attached to my old home, the royal city?93
Since no one is up to the task of working with me toward beautiful rule,
I will follow Peng and Xian, and go where they dwell.94
NOTES
1. For details, see Gopal Sukhu, The Shaman and the Heresiarch: A New Interpretation of the “Li Sao” (Albany: SUNY Press, 2012).
2. Zhu Rong is a fire spirit and lord of the south.
3. Hui Lu is a fire spirit, the younger brother of Zhu Rong, who took his place and bore the same title.
4. Tao Wu is also known as Gun. He was charged by Yao with controlling the Great Flood and failed. Yao consequently killed him on Feather Mountain (羽山 Yu Shan), where his spirit assumed the shape of a golden bear.
5. Yi Yang is a theriomorphic divinity about whom little is known.
6. Du Bo was murdered in cold blood by King Xuan of the Zhou dynasty. Three years later King Xuan assembled his feudal lords for the royal hunt. Suddenly Du Bo appeared wearing red clothes and a red hat, carrying a red bow, and with red arrows he killed the king.
7. Dan Zhu was one of the sons of Yao.
8. Guoyu 國語 (Shanghai 1987 reprint of Shangwu 1934 edition of the Song Mingdao er nian 宋明道二年 text of 1033), “Zhou yu shang” 周語上, 10–11.
9. The name of the bad last ruler of the Shang dynasty is usually transliterated “Zhou,” but here I, following some of my colleagues, have transliterated it as “Djou” to distinguish it from the identical transliteration in, for example, “Zhou dynasty.”
10. Wang Yi says that Gaoyang 高陽 was
the title of Zhuan Xu 顓頊 when he was “ruler of the world.” This accords with the Han idea that Zhuan Xu was the sage-king who ruled (coming after Shao Hao 少昊 and before Di Ku 帝嚳) two dynasties before the sage-king Yao. In the extant indisputably pre-Qin texts, however, Gaoyang is never identified with Zhuan Xu. He is represented as one of the Heavenly Powers 帝, or God-Lords; see Burton Watson, trans., Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hsün Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu, Translations from the Asian Classics, Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies, no. 74 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), 56–57. This may mean that the Han account represents a tradition that was not represented in pre-Qin texts, that we know of.
11. The text has Bo Yong 伯庸, a name that seems to occur nowhere else. I have followed the theory of Rao Zongyi. In Chuci dili kao 楚辭地理考 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1946), 7–10, he notes that in a Southern Song text titled Lu shi 路史, the “Yong” of Bo Yong is used to write the “Rong” of Zhu Rong 祝融, and that in a number of pre-Qin texts, such as the Chu Silk Manuscript, “Rong” is frequently written with characters interchangeable with ancient forms of “Yong.” Zhu Rong was one of the ancestral spirits of the Chu royal house and a descendant of Zhuan Xu (Gaoyang). According to “Chu shijia” 楚世家; see Sima Qian 司馬遷, Shiji 史記 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1992), 40:1689, his original name was Chong Li 重黎, who, it should be noted, is two people, Chong and Li, according to some texts. Zhu Rong was a title given him by the legendary King Di Ku 帝嚳 when he employed him as his governor of fire (huozheng 火正). When the legendary villain Gonggong 共工 rebelled, Di Ku sent Zhu Rong to punish him, but Zhu Rong did not complete the mission. Di Ku therefore executed Zhu Rong on the gengyin 庚寅 day (“the first day” in my translation) and appointed Wuhui 吴回, Zhu Rong’s younger brother, in his place. The younger brother thus assumed the title of Zhu Rong. Since the “Bo” in Bo Yong means “elder” and Yong is just another way of writing Rong, it would appear that Bo Yong is Bo Rong, i.e., the elder Zhu Rong.
12. For the ancient Chinese technical terms for marking years, months, and days in this passage, see David Hawkes, Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1985), 79–82. It should be noted here that gengyin, although the twenty-seventh day of the sixty-day cycle, is the first day of spring in this context, where Meng Zou 孟陬 is the first month of spring and the adverb zhen 貞 implies that the Sheti 攝提 stars are now indicating its beginning. I was once convinced by Wang Yi’s explication of Sheti as an abbreviation of the term Shetige 攝提格, a name for the first month of the ancient Chinese twelve-month cycle, beginning in yin 寅, but, like Hawkes, I have come to see the reasonability of Zhu Xi’s explanation in the “Chuci bianzheng shang” 楚辭辯證上 section of Chuci jizhu 楚辭集注, ed. Jiang Lifu 蔣立甫 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2001). Gengyin is also the day the younger brother of Zhu Rong, Wuhui, was appointed to his position as governor of fire.
13. The August Ones (皇 Huang) are the ancestral spirits in Heaven.
14. Jiangli 江離 is the modern chuanxiong 川芎, which was a food, a fragrance that was worn in the clothes, and a remedy for head ailments, among other things. See Pan Fujun 潘富俊, Chuci zhiwu tujian 楚辭植物圖鑒 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 2003), 16–17. The English term for this plant is lovage. Qiulan, or “autumn thoroughwort,” is the late-flowering Eupatorium japonicum (or chinense), which flowers and fruits from June to November. It is a fragrance, an apotropaic plant, an insect repellent, a soap, and a general purifier. Confucius called it 王者之香 wangzhe zhi xiang, “the royal fragrance.” See Pan, Chuci zhiwu tujian, 20–21.
15. Following the Hong Xingzu text and taking zhuang 壯 to refer to the flourishing stage of flora as per elsewhere in the poem; see Hong Xingzu 洪興祖, Chuci buzhu 楚辭補注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), 6–7 and 42.
16. Qi 騏 and Ji 驥 are mythical fine horses capable of traveling a thousand li in a day.
17. There are many theories about the Sanhou 三后. I take the term to refer to the three legendary founders of Chu: Zhu Rong 祝融, Yu Yin 粥飲, and Laotong 老童.
18. Jie 桀 is the bad last king of the Xia dynasty and Djou 紂 is the bad last king of the Shang. They are the stock opposites of the sage-kings Yao and Shun.
19. Quan 荃 (Acorus calamus) has an alternative name, sun 蓀. Both terms occur in the Nine Songs; “Li sao” has quan only. In the Zhouli (“Tian guan jiazai”), it is used in sacrifice; wine was poured onto bound bunches of it to convey the wine to the spirits. It grows near water and is fragrant. According to Hong Xingzu, it was used as fish bait. Hong Xingzu quotes a passage from the Zhuangzi: “When one catches the fish, one forgets the quan [得魚而忘荃]” (Chuci buzhu, 9). I therefore call it lure leaf. It is used as a term of endearment here, but if it was meant to be read in the light of the Zhuangzi statement, it could have a level of irony if not sarcasm.
20. Hong Xingzu thinks these lines were added later. Many scholars do no include them. I take them as supernumerary lines.
21. There are a number of theories about how large a wan 畹 was; it was different at different times. During the Han it was thirty mu 畝, but Wang Yi tells us that here it means twelve mu, by which he may mean the measure during the Warring States era. In any event, nine wan is larger than one hundred mu.
22. Jieju 揭車 is Lysimachia clethroides, or gooseneck loosestrife, which, though fragrant, is highly invasive.
23. No one is entirely sure about the identity of Peng Xian. The earliest occurrence of the name is in “Li sao.” Wang Yi writes that he was a grandee of the Shang dynasty who committed suicide by drowning when his king rejected his advice. The idea that Peng Xian was a loyal minister who had drowned seems implied in lines 42–43 (Hawkes’s translation) of Liu Xiang’s “Li shi” 離世 (Leaving the world) from the “Nine Sighs” (九歎 Jiu tan) section of the Chuci; the origin of the idea that he was a grandee of the Shang is unknown. I have followed Gu Jiegang, who followed Liao Ping, in taking Peng Xian as an abbreviation of two names, Wu Peng and Wu Xian; see Gu Jiegang 顧頡剛, Shilin zashi: Peng Xian 史林雜識。彭咸 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1978), 202. Peng and Xian in fact are names of diviners inscribed in the Shang oracle bones; see Guo Moruo 郭沫若, Buci tongzuan 卜辭通纂 (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1983), nos. 237, 525, 786, 795.
24. No one is sure about the identity of Nü Xu 女婿. As I pointed out earlier, shamanesses and supernatural women often have names with Nü as the first element; see chapter 4. Wang Yi, basing himself on a gloss from the now lost commentary of Jia Kui tells us that sisters are called Xu in the state of Chu. He was therefore of the opinion that Nü Xu was Qu Yuan’s sister. I think that she is a shaman “sister” in the same coven as Ling Jun. The term xu means “secondary wife” in the Book of Changes. Such a name makes sense if we think of Ling Jun as the primary wife of Ling Xiu.
25. Gun is the father of Yu, mythical founder of the Xia dynasty. According to the “Yao dian” section of the Shujing, Yao gives Gun the task of stopping the Great Flood—reluctantly because Gun is fang ming 方命, “disobedient to orders” (Legge’s translation; see James Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5 vols. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893–1894; repr., Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960], 3:25). In the Wen xuan version of “Li sao,” wang 亡 is written fang 方. This has prompted some scholars to believe that the phrase wang shen 亡身 is a miscopying of fang ming 方命. Wang and fang are often confused, but not shen and ming. It seems more likely that wang, “disappear,” was confused with wang 忘, “forget,” as Wen Yiduo 聞一多 pointed out (Li sao jiegu 離騷解詁 [Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1985], 28). Gun failed in his mission and was consequently executed near Feather Mountain. According to another version of the myth, he was executed for carrying out the mission but inadvertently throwing the five elements out of order (Ruan Yuan 阮元, Shisanjing zhushu 十三經注疏 [Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 19
87], 122 and 128). In some versions it is Shun who kills him, and in others it is Yao.
26. Puncture vine (ci 薋), Tribulus terrestris; hairy joint grass (lu 菉), Arthraxon hispidus; and cocklebur (shi 葹), Xanthium sibiricum, are all noxious and highly invasive weeds. See Pan, Chuci zhiwu tujian, 52–57.
27. Chonghua is a title of the sage-king Shun. He is buried on a mountain called Jiuyi 九疑 (meaning “Nine Doubts”) near the source of the Xiang River in southern Hunan, where he died while attacking the Miao tribes. Shun is also a descendant of Zhuan Xu’s and is also sometimes referred to by the title Gaoyang.
28. Hong Xingzu does not follow Wang Yi’s attempt to reconcile these lines with Confucian literature, where Qi is a virtuous person. In the Mencius, for example, Qi “was good and capable and able to follow in the footsteps of Yu [his father and founder of the Xia dynasty]” (D. C. Lau, trans., Mencius [Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1970], 145). Hong instead quotes the Shanhaijing, according to which, “The Lord of Xia [Qi] was a guest in Heaven three times. He obtained the Nine Variations and the Nine Songs and came down” (Hong, Chuci buzhu, 21). The Guo Pu commentary says, “Both are names of the Celestial Lord’s music. Qi, ascending to Heaven, stole them, came down, and enjoyed them.” There is also a quotation in the Mozi, from a lost work titled Wu Guan 武觀, which states, “Qi gave himself up to pleasure and music, eating and drinking in the open fields. Qiang, qiang the flutes and chimes sounded in unison. He drowned himself in wine and behaved indecently by eating in the fields. Splendid was the Wan dance, but Heaven clearly heard the sound and Heaven did not approve” (Watson, Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, 116; Mozi jiangu 墨子閒詁, vol. 3 of Zhuzi jicheng 諸子集成 [Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1987], 161–62). Here we have an image of Qi that is less virtuous than that we see in the classics.
The “five sons” alluded to here are those of Qi, son of the founder of the Xia dynasty, initiator of the practice of hereditary monarchy, and celestial music thief. They are sometimes called Wu Guan 五觀, or the Five Guans, after the place where their princedoms were located. Confusingly, in some texts Wu Guan is the name of the youngest of the sons. His name can be written Wu Guan 五觀 (Five or Fifth Guan) or Wu Guan 武觀 (Martial Guan), giving rise to uncertainty in some texts as to whether Wu Guan is one son or the five. “Li sao” appears to be alluding to elements found in at least two stories about Qi and his sons. The first is that found in the Zhushu jinian 竹書紀年 (帝啟十一年 “Di Qi Shiyi nian”), which tells us that after Qi took to dancing the “Nine Zhao” out in the fields, he banished Wu Guan to Xihe. Later Wu Guan rebelled against his father. The other story is from the “Changmai” 嘗麥 section of the Yi zhoushu 逸周書, which tells of the “five sons” who forgot the mandate of Yu and rebelled because of the corruption in the royal household (presumably an allusion to their father’s revelry). For the best discussion of these and other accounts, see Jin Kaicheng 金開誠, Dong Hongli 董洪利, and Gao Luming 高路明, Qu Yuan ji jiaozhu 屈原集校注, 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1996), 1:71–74. Their discussion on this question is based mostly on the commentary of Wang Yingzhi 王引之, quoted in You Guo’en 游國恩, Li sao zuanyi 離騷纂義 (Beijing: Zhonghua shudian, 1982), 219.
