by Gopal Sukhu
Accumulate it at midnight,
Attend to this in a state of utter emptiness,
In a state prior to Nonintention.
All things are thereby completed—
This is the gateway to its power.
Having heard this most precious teaching I set forth,
Eager to put it into practice.
I followed the Winged People11 to the Cinnabar Hills,12
And stayed in the old country of the Undying.
In the morning I washed my hair in Hot Water Valley,13
dried myself in the warmth of nine afternoon suns,14
and drank the elixir spraying from the Flying Springs.15
Then I placed the flower of wan and yan jades16 in the bosom of my robe,
And my complexion took on the glistening texture of the jade.
Vigor surged through me as my essence grew pure,
For I was shedding my grosser elements and becoming light as gauze,
And my spirit power flowed freely.
I admired the flaming aura of this southern region,
And loved the cinnamon trees that bloom there in winter,
But its creatureless mountains were deserted,
And its uninhabited wilds were silent,
So I lifted my altered spirit and mounted the sunset clouds,
Which concealed me as I journeyed higher.
I ordered the celestial gateman to open the sky gates.
He pushed them open and stared at me.
I called Fenglong17 to be my guide,
To find where the spirit of Great Subtlety18 resided.
Reaching the highest and clearest sky I entered the Sky Lord’s palace.
Arriving at Venus I surveyed the Pure Capital.
In the morning I set out from the Heavenly Court,19
And by evening was looking down upon Mount Yuweilü.20
I mustered my ten thousand chariots,
And at a leisurely pace we proceeded abreast,
Driving teams of eight undulating dragons,
Serpentine waves of streamers above us.
Rainbow pennons with yak-tail crests rose high,
Their many colors blinding,
Over the bobbing heads of yoke dragons,
And the muscular writhing of trace dragons.
Around the chariots, a bustling horde of cavalry
Proceeded shoulder to shoulder in an endless motley wave.
I grasped the reigns and raised the whip,
And led them to Goumang’s21 realm.
We passed Tai Hao22 and turned right.
Feilian23 went ahead to scout,
As the glow of the sun preceded its rise,
We crossed the Sky Pool24 and moved forward.
When the Wind Earl25 sped ahead to herald my arrival,
Dust fled the airy path leaving it clean and cool.
Phoenixes winging overhead served as my banners,
As I met Rushou26 in the realm of the Western Lord.27
I used a comet as my ox-tailed and feathered flag,
And held the handle of the Broom Star28 for signal banner.
Up and down in colored bands
Flowed the waves of the startled mists we rode.
But as the darkening hour obscured the way,
I summoned the Black Warrior29 to serve as rear guard.
And had Wen Chang30 behind command those in my train,
Selecting and assigning spirits to protect my chariot.
On the endlessly long journey,
We slowed as we climbed to a higher place.
I had the Rain God31 serve as bodyguard on my left,
And the Thunder God32 on my right.
I was ready to escape the world and never look back,
To break the bonds and soar.
Joy filled my heart and pride,
And, for the moment, lost in my own happiness,
I was wandering aimlessly through clouds and blue sky,
When I caught sight of that old home of mine.
My charioteer fell homesick and my heart grieved,
The draft beasts looked back and would not go on.
Images of fond old times filled my mind with longing,
Deep in sighs I wiped my tears away.
But breaking my hovering delay I rose higher,
Suppressing the thoughts for a time, controlling myself.
I pointed to the God of Fire33 and we galloped straight toward him.
I was on my way to the Southern Doubts.34
Seeing the vastness of the world beyond my homeland,
I let myself float as though on open seas.
Zhu Rong gave warning and the road was cleared of people.
News was relayed, luan birds welcomed Fufei,35
Musicians played “Xian Pond”36 and “Holding Clouds,”37
And the two daughters of Yao38 performed the “Nine Shao” song.39
They had the Xiang River spirits play the many stringed se.
And when they had Ruo,40 the ocean god, dance with the River Earl,
Black dragons and monsters of the sea surfaced and joined in,
Their forms bending and coiling.
The voluptuous rainbow women added their charm,
And the luan birds soared and hovered above.
Music and joy were everywhere, endless,
And I lingered—how could I leave then?
We gave free rein to our dragons and the procession ran wild,
Arriving at the Gate of Winter41 at an extreme end of the sky,
And we overtook the speedy winds at Clear Spring,42
And followed Zhuan Xu43 through the piled-up ice.
We visited Mysterious Dark44 taking a side road.
As we charioted through high heavens we looked back,
And I summoned Qian Ying45 to audience with me,
And he guided me onto level road.
I traversed the four wilds,
And traveled all over the six directions,
So high I could see through the seams between the skies,
Then I looked down toward the abysmal sea.
Below me was only landless depth,
And above me, skyless space.
I looked but saw the blur of nothing,
I listened but heard the muffled silence of nothing.
I had transcended Nonintention and arrived at perfect purity,
A short distance from the Great Beginning.46
NOTES
1. For a translation of “Yuan you” that is informed by a deeper knowledge of religious Daoism than mine, see Paul W. Kroll, “On ‘Far Roaming,’ ” Journal of the American Oriental Society 116, no. 4 (October–December 1996): 653–69.
2. Red Pine (赤松 Chi Song) is one of the most famous of the immortals (仙 xian).
3. Fu Yue 傅說 was raised from poverty to the position of prime minister by King Wuding of the Shang dynasty. One of the legends about him is that when he died, his spirit rose to the sky on a star.
4. Han Zhong 韓眾 (not to be confused with Han Zhong 韓終, the Qin-dynasty wizard) is a figure described in a quote in Hong Xingzu 洪興祖, Chuci buzhu 楚辭補注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), 164, from a nonexistent passage in the Liexian zhuan. There he is described as an expert herbalist who picked medicinal plants that he made into a concoction for a king who refused to take it. Taking it himself, he became an immortal.
5. A person was believed to have two souls in ancient China, the hun 魂 (also known as 神 shen), which was yang and associated with mental and spiritual faculties and which rose to heaven upon death, and the po 魄 (also known as 鬼 gui), which was yin and connected to the body.
6. Gaoyang is Zhuan Xu, a di 帝, or god-lord, the ancestor of a number of royal families, including the royal family of the kings of Chu.
7. Wang Qiao, also known as Wang Ziqiao 王子喬, is an immortal whose fame is on par with that of Red Pine.
�
�� 8. These are the liu qi 六氣, which are variously defined. Wang Yi, quoting the now lost Lingyangzi Ming jing 陵陽子明經 (The bright scripture of the Master of Lingyang), lists the six energies: (1) morning clouds (朝霞 zhaoxia)—i.e., the reddish-gold air at sunrise—to be absorbed in spring; (2) sinking dimness (淪陰 lunyin)—i.e., the reddish-gold air just after the sun has set—to be absorbed in fall; (3) evening mist and dew (沆瀣 hangxie)—i.e., the air at midnight in the north—to be absorbed in winter; (4) high noon (正陽 zhengyang)—i.e., the air of noontime in the south—to be absorbed in summer; and (5) and (6) the dark golden airs of Heaven and Earth (天地玄黃 tiandi xuanhuang). Three of these energies are mentioned in this stanza: evening mist and dew (“dew of northern midnights”), high noon (“light of southern noons”), and morning clouds (“reddish sunrise air”).
9. South Nest is Nanchao 南巢, a non-Chinese southern state.
10. This is the yiqi 壹氣, or the “one energy” that underlies everything. Some say the term is synonymous with Dao.
11. The Winged People (羽人 Yuren) are the xian, or immortals.
12. The Cinnabar Hills (丹丘 Dan Qiu) are where the xian live. It is always bright there, day or night.
13. Hot Water Valley (湯谷 Tanggu) is where the sun bathes and where the fusang tree grows.
14. Nine suns grow on the fusang 扶桑 (handhold mulberry) tree’s lower branches, but on the top branch there is a tenth sun.
15. No one knows for sure, but some scholars claim that the Flying Springs (飛泉 Feiquan) confer immortality.
16. No one knows for sure what the wan 琬 yan 琰 jades are, but any “flower” of jade indicates that it is jade so fine and pure that it has magical powers.
17. Fenglong 豐隆 is the god of clouds.
18. Great Subtlety (大微 Dawei) is the name of a star, and the celestial palace, where the Sky Lord lives.
19. The Pure Capital (清都 Qingdu) with its Heavenly Court (太儀 Taiyi) is located near Venus (Taibai 太白)
20. Yuweilü 於微閭 is a mythical mountain in the northeast that produces extraordinary jade.
21. Goumang 勾芒 is the god of the wood element and is located in the east.
22. Tai Hao 太皓 is the god-lord of the east.
23. Feilian 飛廉 is the wind god.
24. Sky Pond is Xianchi 咸池, or Xian Pond, a star, or god, located in the west.
25. Wind Lord (風伯 Fengbo) is another name for Feilian.
26. Rushou 蓐收, located in the west, is the god of metal and autumn.
27. Western Lord is Shao Hao 少昊, the god-lord of the west.
28. Broom Star is Huixing 慧星, a general term for comet.
29. Black Warrior (玄武 Xuan Wu) is the sky god of the north.
30. Wen Chang 文昌 is a star cluster and also the name of the god of officials.
31. Rain God is Yushi 雨師.
32. Thunder God is Leigong 雷公.
33. God of Fire is Zhu Rong 祝融 in the following. He is the god of summer and the ancestor of the royal family of Chu.
34. Southern Doubts (南疑 Nanyi) is Nine Doubts Mountain 九疑, where Shun is buried.
35. Fufei 宓妃 is the daughter of Fuxi 伏羲, a god-lord. She drowned in the Luo River, and her spirit became its goddess.
36. Xian Pond is the same name as the star mentioned in note 24, but here it refers to music that originated in the court of the sage-king Yao.
37. “Bearing Clouds” (承雲 “Cheng Yun”) is music that is supposed to have originated in the court of the sage-king Huangdi.
38. Ehuang 娥皇 and Nüying 女英 were the two daughters of the sage-king Yao. They are also the Xiang River spirits.
39. “Nine Shao” (九韶 “Jiu Shao”) song is music from the court of Shun.
40. Ro or Ruo 若 is the god of the Northern Sea in the “Autumn Floods” (秋水section of the Zhuangzi).
41. Gate of Winter (寒門 Hanmen) is the celestial gate of the North Pole.
42. Clear Spring (清源 Qingyuan) is a mythical body of water in the north. It is also thought of as the place where winds are stored.
43. Zhuan Xu 顓頊 is god-lord of the north and winter.
44. Mysterious Dark is Xuanming 玄冥, a water spirit.
45. Qian Ying 黔嬴 is the god of creation and change.
46. Great Beginning (太初 Taichu) is where one finds the primordial energy.
CHAPTER SIX
“The Diviner” 卜居 “Bu ju”
and
“The Fisherman” 漁夫 “Yufu”
The idea that the following pieces are the work of Qu Yuan began during the Han dynasty. The earliest appearance of “The Fisherman,” however, is as part of The Records of the Grand Historian (史記 Shiji) biography of Qu Yuan, which is to say that Sima Qian, or whoever composed the biography, considered it less literature than history. “The Diviner” first reappears as literature alongside “The Fisherman” in a catalogue of the works of Qu Yuan compiled by Liu Xiang (57–6 B.C.E.). The earliest extant edition of the Chuci by the Han scholar Wang Yi (d. 158 C.E.) included them as well. Serious doubt about the authorship of the works arose during the Song dynasty, and today almost no one thinks they are by Qu Yuan. Both stories read like parables, but their viewpoints differ. “The Diviner” expresses sympathy with Qu Yuan’s plight in tragic tones. “The Fisherman,” taking a subtly ironic stance, reads like the type of Daoist story one finds in works such as the Zhuangzi, where figures similar to Qu Yuan, such as Confucius, are satirized. Both stories mix verse and prose, verse being in fact preponderant in “The Diviner.” Some literary historians therefore think of them as representing an early stage in the development of the fu 賦, or rhapsody, which is rhymed prose.
“THE DIVINER”
卜居
“BU JU”
Qu Yuan had been exiled for three years, and during that time never managed to have audience with his king again. He had done everything he could think of to serve his king with the utmost loyalty, but slanderers stood in his way. Distressed and confused he did not know which way to turn, so he went to visit the Grand Diviner Zheng Zhanyin and said, “I am in a quandary, and am looking to you to help me solve it.” Zhanyin thereupon took out his divining stalks1 and dusted off a tortoise shell, saying, “I await your instructions.”
Qu Yuan said:
Should I be sincere,2 straightforward, and loyal, or should I be an endlessly accommodating social butterfly?
Should I remove the grass3 with a hoe and vigorously plow the field, or should I make the rounds visiting the important people in order to establish my name?
Should I speak with full candor and thus place myself in danger, or should I consort with the vulgar and lead a life of no goals other than wealth and status.
Should I rise above the crowd to preserve my authenticity, or should I become a trembling, false-faced toady fit only to serve women?
Should I remain honest and straight and keep myself clean, or should I become smooth talking and slippery as a leather band used to measure the thickness of columns?
Should I hold my head high like a colt that can run a thousand miles, or should I float like a duck on the stream bobbing up and down with the waves just to save my skin?
Should I run abreast with the Qis and Jis, or should I walk in the tracks of the nags?
Should I fly wing to wing with golden swans, or fight over food with chickens and ducks?
Which way will end well, which will not? Whom do I leave, whom do I follow?
The world is filthy, drenched in muddy water.
They take the wing of a cicada as heavy, and thirty thousand catties as light.
The keynote bell they break and discard, but make a thunderous noise beating clay pots.
The liars are on the rise and honest gentlemen are out of sight.
I’m left with only silence or sighs�
��who appreciates my purity?
Zhanyin thereupon put down his divining stalks and declined to perform the divination, saying, “There are places where a foot rule is too short and an inch rule is too long. There are times when one finds oneself inadequate, when one’s knowledge does not clarify. There are instances where divination is useless, and the spirits have no power. Go by your heart, follow your will. My tortoise shell and divining stalks cannot advise you.”
“THE FISHERMAN”
漁夫
“YUFU”
After Qu Yuan was sent into exile, he wandered the banks of the rivers and lakes singing as he walked and looking lean and haggard. A fisherman seeing him asked, “Are you not the High Officer of the Three Districts?4 How did you come to this pass?”
Qu Yuan answered, “This world is a muddy river; I alone am clean. It is a mob of drunkards; I alone am sober. That is why I was sent into exile.”
The fisherman answered, “The sage does not get bogged down in externals, and is thus able to adapt as the world changes. If the people of the world are in muddy waters, why not make waves by stirring up even more mud? If every one is drunk, why not make wine dregs your food and clear wine your drink? Why get yourself banished for thoughts too deep and deeds too lofty?”
Qu Yuan said, “They say that if you have just washed your hair, you should dust off your hat. If you have just taken a bath, you should shake out your clothes. Why cover a clean body with dirty things? I would rather enter the flowing river and let the bellies of fish be my burial ground than let my gleaming purity be sullied by the filth of the vulgar world.”
The fisherman smiled ever so slightly. Tapping his paddle he began to leave. As he did so he sang the following song:
When the Canglang waters5 are clear,
I can wash my hat strings.
When the Canglang waters are muddy,
I can wash my feet.
And so he departed and never conversed with Qu Yuan again.
NOTES
1. Yarrow stalks, slips of bamboo, or coins are used in divination techniques associated with the Book of Changes (易經 Yijing) and other such texts. The tortoise shell is one of the oldest Chinese divination tools. The diviner would interpret cracks that appear on its surface after firing.
2. From this point, Qu Yuan’s speech is entirely in verse.
3. This may not be meant literally. Agricultural metaphors evoking the cultivation of plants and herbs are used extensively in “Li sao” and elsewhere and refer to reforming corrupt government.
