The Songs of Chu

by Gopal Sukhu

  Another tradition holds that Yi was both a good archer and the Lord of Qiong during the Xia dynasty and that he assassinated Lord Xiang of the Xia dynasty and was later murdered by Han Zhuo.

  28. In the Shangshu 尚書, Yu tells us that after marrying the daughter of the ruler of the Tushan (Mud Hill) state, he stayed with her for only four days so that he could resume the task of stemming the flood. His main purpose in marrying her was to continue the family line. See Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:84–85.

  29. Qi 啟 was the son of Yu 禹, the founder of the Xia dynasty. Yee 益 (to be distinguished from Archer Yi) was one of Yu’s ministers, designated by Yu to succeed him on the royal throne. Qi of course thought himself the rightful heir and sought to displace Yee. One version of the story, represented in the Mencius, claims that after the death of Yu, the people did not consider Yee to be up to the job, and Qi, whose virtue was augmented by his heritage, was made ruler by the approbation of the subjects. See Legge, The Chinese Classics, 2:358–59. Other versions say that Yu abdicated in favor of Yee, but Qi would not go along with it and therefore attacked Yee, eventually replacing him on the throne. See the Sibu congkan edition of Zhanguo ce, “Yan wang kai ji li” 燕王噲既立, 73, at the Chinese Text Project (http://ctext.org), which says that Yu handed over the realm to Yee in name only and in fact ordered Qi to seize it from Yee. It is possible that TW is referring to yet another version.

  As for “prison,” one version of the Zhushu jinian (Bamboo annals) states, “Yee threatened Qi’s rightful position, so Qi killed him”; see Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:118. This happened after Qi displaced Yee and Yee tried to retake the throne. But Wang Fuzhi quotes the same source as saying that after Yee replaced Qi on the throne, he placed Qi under arrest. Qi nevertheless rose and killed Yee and succeeded his father. This information is not in the extant Bamboo Annals; see You, Tian wen zuanyi, 188–91. Qi’s main “worry,” according to Wang Yi, was about his moral authority. Yet according to the Shanhaijing, “Dahuang xijing,” Qi ascended to Heaven three times and stole the heavenly music—namely, the Jiubian (Nine variations) and the Jiuge (Nine songs)—not to be confused with sections with the same names in the Chuci; see Yuan, Shanhaijing, 273. That led to his frequent revels in the fields and the consequent ruin of his state, according to the Mozi and “Li sao.” Here TW is asking, if Qi was arrested by Yee, how was he able to escape and stage an uprising? Did heaven, which should have been displeased by his thievery, bring this about?

  30. As explained in the previous note, though Yu bestowed his throne on Yee, the majority of the subjects favored Qi. This passage seems to claim that the army of Yee surrendered to Qi without a fight.

  31. I emend the text from shang 商 to di 帝 with Zhu Junsheng 朱駿聲 (see You, Tian wen zuanyi, 209). The “Nine Variations” and the “Nine Songs” are dance music that were originally the possessions of the Lord of the Sky. Shanhaijing, “Dahuang xijing” (Yuan, Shanhaijing, 273), says that Qi (under the synonymous name Kai 開 [Open]) was the guest of Heaven three times and “obtained” the music. Guo Pu 郭璞, commenting on the passage, tells us that Qi, sending three beautiful women up to Heaven, stole the “Nine Variations” and the “Nine Songs.” The Mozi holds that Qi’s performance of the “Nine Variations” and the “Nine Songs” during long revels in the wilderness after hunting was his downfall; see Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 85, and “Li sao.” According to the myth (the earliest reference to which comes from a quotation of a no longer extant passage from the Huainanzi in a Yan Shigu note on the Han Wudi Annals in the Hanshu), Qi’s mother, Madame Tushan, changed into a stone when she discovered that Yu, her husband, had changed into a bear. She was pregnant at the time, and when Yu demanded that she give him her son, she split open on her northern side and out came Qi, whose name means “open”; see Yuan, Zhongguo shenhua chuanshuo cidian, 332–33. See also the same source (211), quoting Qing scholar Ma Su 馬驌 (1621–1673), who quotes the largely lost Sui chaozi 隨巢子. Qin 勤, meaning “to treat well” or “to help” goes as far back as the Shijing and also occurs in the Zuozhuan and the Guoyu. I follow Wang Yi in taking fen 分 as referring to the postpartum fragments of Madame Tushan.

  32. The calamities that Archer Yi confronted were ten suns and a number of monsters. The only calamity that the Shanhaijing (“Haiwai nan jing”) mentions is Zaochi 鑿齒, or Chisel Teeth, with whom he fought and over whom he triumphed (Yuan, Shanhaijing, 185). Archer Yi’s killing the River Earl and taking his wife, the Lady of the Luo, is not mentioned in other texts. His shooting the giant boar is mentioned in the Huainanzi, “The Basic Warp” (see Major et al., Huainanzi, 276). “Mound Pig” is another way of translating Feng Xi 封豨, also translatable as “Giant Boar”). His offering its meat to the Sky Lord and being ignored by him is not mentioned in texts other than TW. But if Di Jun 帝俊was the Sky Lord under whom Yi shot down nine of the ten suns as recounted in the Huainanzi, then Di Jun’s reaction is understandable, for the suns were the sons of Di Jun (Yuan, Zhongguo shenhua chuanshuo cidian, 303). The only problem is that the Huainanzi has Archer Yi removing the nine suns on the order of Yao rather than Di Jun. In the “Li sao,” however, his shooting the giant boar was not an aspect of his heroism but a sign of his addiction to hunting, which he pursued to the detriment of his subjects. Some think that the main calamity that Archer Yi removed was the third ruler of Xia, Tai Kang, who, spending most of his time hunting in the wilds, neglected his subjects, according to the Shangshu (see Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:156–61). As for Yi’s killing the River Earl, Wang Yi quotes a “Commentary” (on what text he does not reveal) that relates that the River Earl changed into a white dragon and swam close to the shore. Yi caught sight of him, shot at him, and hit him in the left eye. The River Earl reported this to the Lord of the Skies, saying, “Kill Yi for me.” The Lord of the Sky said, “How is it you were shot?” The River Earl said, “At the time I had changed into a white dragon and had gone on an excursion.” The Sky Lord said, “If you had maintained your spirit powers, how could Yi have gotten to you? You are now but a common beast; you ought to be shot by people—he did what was appropriate for sure. What crime did Yi commit?” Wang Yi also tells us that Yi had an erotic dream about the Beauty of the Luo—i.e., the wife of the River Earl. See Hong, Chuci buzhu, 99.

  The events in the life of the Xia-dynasty Archer Yi are related in Zuozhuan, Xianggong, 4th year; see Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:424. According to that account, he took the throne of the Xia dynasty after saving its subjects (presumably from the neglect of Tai Kang). Like Tai Kang, he lapses into a hunting addiction and begins to depend too much on Han Zhuo 寒浞, the estranged son of the Lord of Boming 伯明. As a trusted minister, Han Zhuo had the run of the court and of Archer Yi’s household. Thinking that he deserved the kingship, he plotted with Yi’s household, including Yi’s wife, to assassinate Yi when he returned home from his hunting. Members of the household decided to chop up Yi’s body, cook it, and serve it to his sons in the bargain. The sons of course could not bear to eat their father. They were subsequently killed. One of the Xia ministers escaped and eventually returned to assassinate Han Zhuo.

  Madame Pure Fox seems to be one of Archer Yi’s wives. The words xuan qi 昡妻 (bewitching or benighting wife) may be a pun on xuan qi 玄妻 (black wife), who some say is the same as Pure Fox (純狐 Chun Hu). In Zuozhuan, Zhaogong, 28th year (Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:724–727), she is described as having hair so smooth, black, and glossy that one could use it as a mirror (I do not think Legge was correct to translate jian 鑒 as “cast a light.”). Her son, by Hou Kui, was Bo Feng, whose immoderation gained him the name Feng Zhu 封豬, which means Big Swine. He was supposed to have been killed by Hou Yi. It is difficult to determine whether Black Wife is the same as Pure Fox or whether Big Swine is the same as the giant boar.

  33. Zhuo is Han Zhuo, referred to earlier, a younger member of the Boming family. Lor
d Han of Boming ejected him from the state for his slanderous tongue. Archer Yi took him in and made him a minister.

  Han Zhuo worked hard to undermine Archer Yi by gaining influence, through deception and bribery, over Yi’s subjects and encouraging him in his hunting addiction, with which the subjects were not pleased. Han Zhuo eventually turned Yi’s subjects against him, and, having won over Yi’s wife, Pure Fox, convinced the members of Yi’s household to assassinate him, cook him, and eat him, as noted.

  Archer Yi is supposed to have killed a giant boar in the course of his destruction of the nine suns. The suns were supposed to have been the sons of Di Jun, who is the Sky Lord who assigned Yi the task of keeping them in line. Yi’s killing of them may not have pleased him, and he therefore accepted no offerings from him. His later fate may have been the Sky Lord’s doing.

  34. Gun’s transformation into a yellow bear is recounted in Zuozhuan, Zhaogong, 7th year, Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:617. After being killed at Feather Mountain, he changes into a “yellow bear” and jumps into the deep Feather Pool. Hong Xingzu thought that in fact “yellow bear” (黃熊 huang xiong) is another way of writing “golden three-footed tortoise” (黃能 huang nai), a mythical creature. He nevertheless mentions that people on the east coast of China never use bear meat or turtle meat when they offer sacrifices at temples dedicated to Yu, and he wondered, “Could this mean that Yu was transformed into both creatures?”; see Hong, Chuci buzhu, 100–101. The idea that Gun was revived (probably in the form of a yellow bear) by shamans occurs nowhere else. The shaman ancestors live on one of the peaks of the Kunlun Mountains (also known as Shaman Mountain, Lingshan 靈山) in the west. See Yuan, Shanhaijing, 270.

  35. Another aspect of the Gun myth not found elsewhere. I am influenced by Wang Fuzhi here. See You, Tian wen zuanyi, 235.

  36. (Refers also to next stanza.) According to Wang Yi, Cui Wenzi 崔文子, a Daoist adept, studied the science of becoming immortal with Wang Ziqiao 王子喬. During the process, Wang Ziqiao changed into a nimbus around the sun and in that form delivered the elixir of immortality to Cui Wenzi. Cui Wenzi, not understanding what it was, panicked and struck the nimbus with a halberd. Thereupon the elixir fell to the ground. When he looked down at it, he found the body (some say the shoe) of Wang Ziqiao. Cui Wenzi placed the body in his house and covered it with an old basket. In a moment the body changed into a large bird that began screeching. When Cui Wenzi removed the basket to look, the large bird flew out and away; see Jin, Dong, and Gao, Qu Yuan ji jiaozhu, 359–60, and Hong, Chuci buzhu, 101.

  37. The first couplet is about Ping Yi 屏翳 (Screen Shade), who causes rain and has the alternative name 蓱號 (Duckweed Howl). The second is about Feilian 飛廉, the Wind God, whose body is a combination of bird and deer.

  38. There are two myths about different things whose names sound the same here. The first couplet (as Wang Yi tells us) deals with the story of the Giant Man from the Kingdom of the Dragon Earl, where dwell immortal sages who can fly from mountain to magic forested mountain. But the five mountains in the realm were not rooted in the earth and were liable to be carried away by the tide. The immortal sages therefore asked the Lord of Heaven to do something about this, and he ordered one Yuqiang to create fifteen giant turtles to carry the five mountains on their heads, each team of five taking turns every sixty thousand years; however, there was a giant in the Dragon Earl’s kingdom who managed to catch six of the turtles, which he promptly killed, fired, and turned into divination tools. This left three sets of three turtles to hold the mountains steady; thus two of the mountains drifted away into the great sea in the north; see A. C. Graham, trans., The Book of Lieh-tzu: A Classic of Tao (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 97–98. The word for these turtles is ao 鼇 in Chinese. There is also the story of a strongman named Ao (澆 or 敖), who was so strong that he could walk dragging a boat (some say carrying it on his back) on land (Yuan, Zhongguo shenhua chuanshuo cidian, 291). He was the son of Han Zhuo and seems to be connected with the discovery or use of armor, the word for which is the same as the word for “shell.” The shell connection seems to connect the strongman Ao with the ao turtles. The boat in the last couplet is both the boat that Ao dragged on land and the shells that keep the turtles afloat. It seems to be saying, “Of course Ao did not abandon his boat on land. If he did, how could ao [i.e., the amphibious turtles] keep the mountains out of the destabilizing waters.” See more detailed discussions about this passage, especially that of Wen Yiduo, in Jin, Dong, and Gao, Qu Yuan ji jiaozhu, 362–64.

  39. (Refers also to next stanza.) When Yi 羿 took control of the Xia government, he set up Zhong Kang 仲康 as puppet ruler. When Zhong Kang died, his son Xiang 相 became ruler. When Yi out and out declared himself king, he exiled Xiang, who took refuge with the Lord of Zhenxun 斟鄩. When Han Zhuo assassinated Yi, he sent soldiers to attack Zhenxun, and they killed Xiang there. Xiang’s wife, Queen Min 緡, escaped to the domain of the Lord of Youreng 有仍 and there gave birth to Shao Kang 少康. Shao Kang grew up in Youreng, where he became chief of the shepherds. Shao Kang, fearing the depredations of Han Zhuo, eventually fled to the domain of Lord Youyu 有虞, in whose kitchen he worked. Si 思, the Lord of Youyu, gave his two daughters, who were surnamed Yao 姚, the same surname as Shun’s. Eventually one of the former Xia ministers assassinated Han Zhuo, and Shao Kang was set up as King of Xia. Shao Kang restored the Xia dynasty after the Yi usurpation; see Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:169–70 and 5:792–94.

  Nü Qi 女岐, according to Wang Yi, was the sister-in-law of Ao (Big Turtle). According to a note by Shen Yue on the Bamboo Annals (see Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:120–21 [Annals of the Bamboo Books]), Shao Kang sent a spy to seek out Ao (spelled “Keaou” by Legge; pinyin “Jiao”) (Zuozhuan, Aigong, 1st year, also says this.) One of Ao’s sons had died early, leaving a widow named Nü Qi. Ao took a liking to her and put on strong armor to go to her house and pretend that he needed something from her. Nü Qi mended his lower garments, and they spent the night together. Shao Kang’s spy, Ru Ai 汝艾, sent someone to kill Ao as he slept, but the assassin mistakenly killed Nü Qi instead. Later the same spy killed and beheaded Ao after siccing dogs on him during a hunt, which may have been conducted by Shao Kang. Some scholars accept this; others don’t. The Zuozhuan, Xianggong, 4thth year, Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:424, says that Zhuo had two sons by Yi’s wife, Ao (or 澆 Jiao), and Yi 豷. It also says that Shao Kang killed Ao in the state of Guo 過 and Lord Shu 杼 killed Yi in the state of Ge 戈. The state of Qiong 窮 (Archer Yi’s state) was, as a consequence, destroyed. These passages about Nü Qi and Ao allude to parts of the Ao story that have long been lost. Note that TW calls the woman sister-in-law, whereas in the Bamboo Annals it is his daughter-in-law.

  40. In the Jinben zhushu jinian, Di Xiang 27th year, it says, “Ao attacked Zhenxun and fought a great battle at the Wei [濰] River. There he capsized the boats and destroyed them.” Later Han Zhuo sent Ao to assassinate Xiang, the ruler of Xia, who had taken refuge in Zhenguan and then Zhenxun; see Zhushu jinian, Di Xiang 帝相, Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:121–22. See also Zuozhuan, Aigong, 1st year, Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:794. Unlike many interpreters after Zhu Xi, I do not read Tang 湯 as Kang 康, as he did. Nor do I read Tang 湯 as Ao 澆, as Wen Yiduo did. Mine is a combination of Wang Yi’s and Wang Fuzhi’s interpretations. See You, Tian wen zuanyi, 263–65. Tang is the founder of the Shang; Ao’s temporary overthrow of the Xia dynasty is an unfortunate foreshadowing of Tang’s fortunate permanent overthrow of the Xia with his defeat of its evil last ruler, Jie 桀. In the former instance, the masses were captured by force; in the latter, they were “captured” by virtue.

  41. The Zhushu jinian (see Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:126–27) tells us that Jie, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty, attacked Meng (蒙 or 岷) Mountain and captured two women, Wan 琬 and Yan 琰; he then abandoned his queen, Moxi 末喜, whom he shut up in the Yao 瑤 stone tower (the jade tower of Legge’s tra
nslation). Moxi had been as much a sybarite as her husband, but after being abandoned, Moxi conspired with Yi Yin 伊尹, who eventually overthrew the Xia. The story of Moxi is in the Lie nü zhuan; Anne Behnke Kinney, Exemplary Women of Early China: The “Lienü zhuan” of Liu Xiang (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), tells us that after Tang defeated Jie, he set him afloat in a boat with his wife, Moxi. They escaped to Nanchao and died there. See also Yuan, Zhongguo shenhua chuanshuo cidian, 259.

  42. See Shangshu, “Yaodian,” for the statement, “There is a bachelor in the world; his name is Yu Shun.” This is the recommendation of some of the same advisers who recommended Gun to stem the flood. Yao decides to test Shun, who is the son of perverse and immoral parents. In the same section Yao, seeing that Shun has passed the test, decides to give Shun his daughters in marriage; see Legge, The Chinese Classics, 3:26–27. For the idea that Yao did not inform Shun’s parents about the marriage, see Mengzi, “Wanzhang shang” 345–47. There Mengzi claims that Yao did not inform Shun’s parents about his plan to marry his daughters to him because it was clear that the parents would not have permitted it.