The Songs of Chu

by Gopal Sukhu

  26. In ancient China a series of ten signs were used to designate a ten-day week. These were known as the ten stems. Jia 甲 is the first day of the week. Its use here is as vague as saying “on a Monday.”

  27. Catalpa trees seem to have been a favorite tree in Ying. Some say that they were planted near grave sites.

  28. Summer Head (夏首 Xiashou) is where the Summer River branches out from the Yangtze southeast of Ying in modern Shashi in Hubei. To reach the Yangtze River from Ying one could go west on the Summer River.

  29. The Dragon Gates were the two eastern gates in the wall around the city of Ying.

  30. Some say that Lord Yang was the Lord of Lingyang (陵陽侯 Lingyang Hou) who drowned himself in the river and thus became the god of the waves; see Huainanzi, “Surveying Obscurities,” in John S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth, trans., The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 214.

  31. Lake Dongting is in northern Hunan on the southern bank of the Yangtze. Four rivers, the Xiang, Zi, Yuan, and Li, flow into it. Here the journey passes the place where the Yangtze River and Lake Dongting connect.

  32. Summer Shore (夏浦 Xiapu) is also known as Xiakou 夏口, or Summer Mouth. It is modern-day Hankou, where the Han River enters the Yangtze, near Wuhan.

  33. Some say Lingyang refers to a place in Anhui; others say it refers to a prince by that name who became a god of the waves, referred to as Lord Yang in the preceding.

  34. Yao and Shun, the sage-kings, were thought by some to be fathers who mistreated their sons because neither chose his son, but only the ablest person, to succeed him to the throne.

  35. “As far as the eye can see”—I follow Wang Siyuan in my interpretation of huiji 回極, reading it as siji 四極; see Wang Siyuan 王泗原, Chuci jiaoshi 楚辭校釋 (Beijing: Renmin jiaoyu chubanshe, 1990), 164–65.

  36. The Three and the Five are variously identified. Some say that the phrase stands for the Three Augusts (Fuxi, Nü Wa, Shennong,) and the Five God-Lords (Huang Di, Zhuan Xu, Di Ku, Di Yao, Di Shun). Wang Yi says that they are the Three Kings (Yu of the Xia, Tang of the Shang, King Wen of the Zhou) and the Five Hegemons (Duke Xuan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mu of Qin, Duke Xiang of Song, King Zhuang of Chu).

  37. Peng Xian 彭咸 in the next line is parallel with Three and Five (三五 Sanwu) in the first line, suggesting that Peng Xian should be read as Peng and Xian. There is no basis for taking these two lines (about the Three and the Five and Peng and Xian) as having two separate subjects, other than an ambiguous note by Wang Yi.

  38. Beigu 北姑 is presumably a place-name, but that is all anyone knows about it.

  39. South China during the Warring States period did not extend as far as Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, etc. “Southern” meant Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, etc. The southern regions, many of which were occupied by Chu at its height, were viewed by northerners as underpopulated.

  40. Craftsman Chui 倕 is the mythical inventor of such things as measuring instruments, musical instruments, and woodworking techniques.

  41. Li Lou 離婁 is a mythical figure endowed with supernormal vision who is said to have lived in the time of the Yellow Emperor.

  42. Jin jade 瑾 and yu jade 瑜 are obscure. They are simply defined as types of fine jade.

  43. See note 11.

  44. Tang 湯 was the founder of the Shang dynasty, and Yu 禹 is the founder of the Xia dynasty.

  45. Bo Le 伯樂 is a legendary expert on horses; see Liezi 列子, vol. 3 of Zhuzi jicheng 諸子集成 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1987), 8.8b.

  46. Fenglong 豐隆 is the cloud god or the thunder god, also mentioned in “Li sao.”

  47. Gao Xin 高辛, also known as Di Ku 帝嚳, is often counted as one of the five legendary sage-kings or god-lords. He is the legendary ancestor of the Shang royal house.

  48. The Mysterious Bird, or Dark Bird (玄鳥 Xuanniao), dropped an egg while in flight, and Di Ku’s consort, Jiandi 簡狄, ancestress of the Shang dynasty, ate it. It appears to have made her pregnant with Qi 啟, who grew up to help the sage-king Shun control the Great Flood, after which he was rewarded with the Shang domains.

  49. Zao Fu 造父 is a legendary expert charioteer who served King Mu of the Zhou 周穆王. He drove when King Mu went to visit the Queen Mother of the West.

  50. Bozhong 嶓冢 Mountain is located in Xi prefecture, in modern Gansu (see Hanshu 漢書, comp. Ban Gu 班固 [Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962], 28B.1610). It is the place where the Qin state began. Here it refers to the west, where the sun is setting, metaphor for the late years of a person’s life.

  51. See note 25.

  52. A similar image is used in “Li sao.” It is similar to the lotus flower, in Buddhist symbolism, rising over the mud from which it grows.

  53. Creeping fig (Ficus pumila) is bili 薜荔 in Chinese, a parasitic plant that grows clinging and climbing up trunks and boughs of trees.

  54. It is difficult to tell whether the author of this poem thought of Peng Xian as one person or two.

  55. Scott Cook, The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study and Complete Translation (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2012), 463.

  56. Baili refers to Baili Xi 百里傒, who was the chief minister of the Duke of Yu 虞 during the Spring and Autumn period. After the state of Yu was conquered by Jin, the Duke and Baili were taken captive. When the ruler of Jin married his daughter to Duke Mu of Qin (659–620 B.C.E.), he sent Baili along as a slave in her retinue. Baili escaped on the way but was captured by Chu troops. Duke Mu, having heard that Baili was a talented and intelligent man, reclaimed him from Chu by offering five black ram hides. He then made him his chief minister (Mengzi, “Wanzhang shang,” and Shiji, “Jin benji,” 39:1647).

  57. Yi Yin 伊尹 was chief minister of Tang, the founder of the Shang dynasty. He started out as a slave and, before rising to chief minister, served as a cook.

  58. Lü Wang 呂望 is also known as Lü Shang 呂尚 and Jiang Taigong 姜太公. He worked as a butcher in the city of Zhaoge and fished on the banks of the Wei River. King Wen of Zhou could tell he had extraordinary talent immediately upon meeting him and gave him high office. Later he helped King Wu of Zhou overthrow the Shang dynasty.

  59. Ning Qi 甯戚 was a native of the state of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period who used to express his thoughts in song while feeding his cattle. When Duke Huan of Qi heard him, he was so moved that he gave him high office.

  60. Wu Zixu 伍子胥 was originally a subject of King Ping 平 of Chu (r. 528–516 B.C.E.). He fled to Wu after the king killed his father and elder brother. Once in Wu, he became a military adviser to King Helü 闔閭, helping him defeat Chu after a number of military engagements between the two states between 511 and 504 B.C.E. He is reputed to have desecrated the tomb of King Ping when he returned to Chu with the triumphant Wu army. He did not fare so well under the next Wu king, Fu Chai 夫差, who, under the influence of Wu Zixu’s enemies, turned against him and eventually required that he commit suicide. See Shiji, “Wu Zixu liezhuan,” 66.2171–83.

  61. Jie Zhitui 介之推 was a faithful official of Chong’er 重耳 (also known as Duke Wen of Jin) during the Spring and Autumn period. When Chong’er fled Jin after his father turned against him, he went into a nineteen-year exile, during which time Jie Zhitui and a number of others remained his faithful followers. When Jie Zhitui returned to Jin to take the throne, all the followers lined up to receive their rewards—except Jie Zhitui. Chong’er therefore neglected to reward him. Meanwhile Jie Zhitui retired to Mian Mountain with his mother. Chong’er, finally realizing that he had overlooked Jie Zhitui, went to look for him. Jie, however, refused to come down from the mountain. Chong’er tried to force him by setting fire to the mountain on three sides, leaving one side free for Jie’s escape, but Jie embraced a tree instead and allowed himself to be consumed by the flame
s. His charred corpse was discovered still standing, its arms around the tree. Later, Chong’er renamed Mian Mountain Jie Mountain and made it a sacred precinct (Zuozhuan, Xigong, 24th year; Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5:191); Shiji, 39.1662.

  62. Momu 嫫母, was the very ugly secondary wife of the Yellow Emperor. See Hong Xingzu 洪興祖, Chuci buzhu 楚辭補注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), 152.

  63. For a story that alludes to the lore, see Yanzi chunqiu, “Nei pian za xia” 晏子春秋,內篇雜下, quoted in 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), 2:608.

  64. Many translators take shu 樹 in its later meaning, “tree.” Zhu Xi advised reading the character according to its usual Warring States period sense, “to plant.” He also read Houhuang 后皇 (Lord August) not as “Heaven and Earth,” as did Wang Yi, but as an epithet for a Chu ruler. I follow Zhu Xi. (He thought, however, the Chu ruler was King Huai. I do not.) Accordingly, I take fu 服 to mean “serve” rather than Wang Yi’s “acclimatize.”

  65. The southern kingdom may be southern Chu or another kingdom further south.

  66. Reading chou 儔 (same kind) rather than the interchangeable chou 醜 (ugly).

  67. Despite recognizing the cruelty of the last king of the Shang dynasty, Bo Yi and his brother Shu Qi refused to eat grain grown under the reign of the Zhou king who finally overthrew the Shang. They retired to Shouyang Mountain and starved to death instead. By producing mandarin oranges rather than bitter hardy oranges, the mandarin tree demonstrates that it maintains its character despite being transplanted from south to north, just as Bo Yi maintained his loyalty despite change of regime. See the introduction to this poem for the lore behind this interpretation.

  68. The Chinese is hui 蕙, which is Ocimum basilicum L., not orchid, as Hawkes has it.

  69. Ju 苴 is the straw lining of a shoe. Thus the phrase cao ju bi 草苴比 means “herb and straw shoe lining put together.”

  70. Sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) is tu 荼, and shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) is ji 薺—a bitter vegetable and a sweet vegetable, respectively.

  71. The difficulty in this passage emerges when we consider the fact that the woman is described in the preceding stanza as having passed a sleepless night. This stanza begins with the word wu 寤, which normally means “to wake up.” Hawkes tried to solve the problem by translating wu as “rising,” but the character cannot refer to the physical act of getting out of bed without having slept—it must involve waking up. There is, however, a rare meaning of wu, which may be active here, i.e., as an abbreviation for wu meng 寤夢, “to have a waking dream.” The woman seems to wake up from this waking dream later in the poem.

  72. The words xiang 纕 and ying 膺 can both refer to horse accoutrements, as well as items worn by humans. The equine reference appears to be the intended one here.

  73. This is referring to the phenomenon of the double rainbow. The primary rainbow, with its bright colors, is referred to as the male rainbow (虹 hong) in Chinese. The fainter, secondary rainbow that appears over it is called ni 霓, or cini 雌霓, “female rainbow.”

  74. Fengxue 風穴 can also be translated as “Wind Hole.” Located in the north, it is where the winds of winter come from; see John S. Major et al., trans., The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 6.5, p. 221.

  75. The name of the mountain is also written Min 岷. There is a mountain by that name in Sichuan. It was believed, inaccurately, that the Yangtze River started there.

  76. On Wu Zixu, see note 60.

  77. Shentu Di 申徒狄 was a fearless minister who criticized the brutality of Djou, the last Shang king. Unheeded, he drowned himself in the river, hugging a stone to his chest; or, according to some versions, holding a stone on his back. I have filled out the stanza here to make it intelligible in translation.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Wandering Far Away”

  遠遊

  “Yuan you”

  “Wandering Far Away” was thought to be the work of Qu Yuan until the Qing dynasty, when some scholars began to have doubts. They observed that the quest to attain immortality that runs throughout the poem has more in common with the Daoist cult of the immortals, popular during the Qin and Han dynasties, than with the world represented in works such as the “Li sao” and the Nine Songs, where the immortals never appear.

  Other scholars noticed similarities between “Wandering Far Away” and “The Great Man Rhapsody” (大人賦 “Daren fu”) of the Han poet Sima Xiangru 司馬相如, speculating that he was the author of “Wandering Far Away” and that it was an early draft of “The Great Man Rhapsody.” Others thought that the former was influenced by the latter. Hawkes thought, and I think rightly, that “The Great Man Rhapsody” derives from “Wandering Far Away,” of which the author remains unknown.

  The poem is loosely modeled on the spirit flights of the “Li sao,” with only the faintest hint of the political dissatisfaction. The “flight” in the “Li sao” is a vision or waking dream, where the spirit of the main persona wanders through another dimension, a spirit world that, in the modern view, could be seen as a combination of internal and external reality. A similar melding of internal and external geographies appears in “Wandering Far Away,” which is generally recognized as the first youxian 遊仙 (“wandering immortal” or “wandering among immortals”) poem, a genre, often allegorical, that depicts journeys into the realms of the immortals. The imagery of such poems is symbiotically connected with the visions of paradisiacal realms described in certain Daoist scriptures, which are sometimes interpreted as symbolic of internal states.1 In “Wandering Far Away” the shamanic spirit flight of the “Li sao” is translated into the spirit flight of later Daoism. It is a straight path from there to the flying poetry of Li Bai.

  Wandering Far Away

  Grieving at a dead end in a degenerate time,

  I wished to be weightless, to ascend and wander far away,

  But with no such power among my feeble gifts,

  What would I ride to float to the sky?

  I was sinking into a bog, overwhelmed by filth,

  In stifling sadness—who was there to turn to?

  Wide-eyed, sleepless nights I lay alone,

  Till morning light fell on my cowering soul.

  Ponder the endless cycles of Earth and Sky,

  Lament how we fret our lives away.

  Our past is lost—

  Our future, unknown.

  I paced the floor, yearning for far-off realms,

  Feeling abandoned, hopeless, my heart awry,

  My thoughts confounded and adrift on an anchorless sea,

  And I sank deeper and deeper into gloom.

  Then suddenly my soul flitted out and away,

  And did not return, as my earthbound body withered.

  And with the inner eye my only guide,

  I set forth to find the source of primordial energy.

  Detached, clear, and calm I felt joy,

  Contentment born of a placid lack of intention.

  I had heard the stories of Red Pine’s2 miraculous life,

  And now wished to walk his path of purity.

  There is nothing higher than the powers of the perfected ones,

  Nothing more beautiful than those who anciently attained Transcendence,

  Vanishing into unity with cosmic process,

  Leaving but name and legend to age with the days.

  We wonder at Fu Yue3 who lives among the stars,

  And envy Han Zhong’s4 attainment of Oneness.

  Their serene, dignified forms gradually grew more distant,

  Until they broke free of the human herd and went beyond.

  There their energy changed as they rose higher,

  Until their yang spirit bolted5 as their yin spirit marveled,

&n
bsp; And sometimes in the distance they seem to appear,

  Shimmering back and forth across the night sky.

  They transcended the dust and cleansed themselves of care,

  Never to return to the cities they knew.

  Freed of crowding threats they had no fear,

  Of a world where none could guess where they had gone.

  I dread the endless cycles of celestial time,

  The effulgent spirit’s beaming westward march.

  Snow falls thin to thicken where it falls,

  And I mourn that the most fragrant plants will wither first.

  For a moment I wandered aimless, distracting myself

  From thinking of the years, my many fruitless years.

  With whom could I enjoy the fragrance left?

  When dawn came I confided my heart to the wind—

  Long gone in distant time is Gaoyang,6

  To whom could I look for a model?

  And I say again:

  As untarrying springs and autumns speed by,

  Why stay here, where I’ve lived so long,

  Where the Yellow Lord is beyond my reach?

  I will follow Wang Qiao7 for the fun, for the play.

  Taking in the six energies,8 I drink the dew of northern midnights.

  I rinse my mouth with the light of southern noons,

  And hold in my mouth the reddish sunrise air.

  Thus will I keep my spirit pure,

  Absorbing the subtle, expelling the gross.

  Drifting on a mild southern breeze,

  I arrive at South Nest9 to spend the night

  Where Master Wang with open doors receives me.

  And I sought from him the secret of primordial energy.10

  And he said:

  The Way can be learned,

  But cannot be taught.

  It is so small it has no inside,

  So vast it has no outline.

  Maintain your spirit unconfused,

  And it will become what it is.

  The primordial energy is very numinous,