Chinese Mythology and Tales

V

2

Culture Bearers

A 'lircea Eliade has shown that in most mythologies there is a cen­ tral myth that describes the beginnings o f the world and that this cos­ mogonic myth is accompanied by a sequence o f myths that recount the origin o f plants, fire, medicine, animals, and human institutions (1984, 140-41). This was the primordial era o f divine beings, mythical ances­ tors, and culture heroes. Eliade also notes that “all the important acts o f life were revealed ab origine by gods or heroes” (1971,32). He points out that their value lay not in their cultural benefit per se but in the fact that the cultural benefit was first discovered by a god and revealed to humans by a god (ibid., 30,31). The rich variety o f Greek first-finders is matched by their Chinese parallels: Prometheus and the Fire Driller brought fire, Cadmus and Fu Hsi brought writing, Triptolemus and Hou Chi brought grain, Demeter (or Ceres) and the Farmer God brought agri­ culture, Athena brought horsemanship while Po Y i brought domestica­ tion o f animals and fowl, and Athena and Ch’ih Yu brought war and arms. But the surface equations o f the divine functions o f the Greek and Chinese traditions are immediately diminished when their myths are compared, for beyond simplistic similarities lies a great wealth o f particular differentiation.

In most mythological accounts o f culture bearers or first-finders, importance is attached to the concern the gods feel for the physical well­

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Culture Bearers — 41

being and nourishment o f humans and to the great care they take to teach and show humans how to perform the cultural act, such as sow­ ing, weaving, hunting, or producing fire. Thus the myths deal not so much with the first plant or the first animal as with the first teachings o f the techniques and arts o f culture and civilization. This is not to say that the gods are not jealous o f their gifts, as Prometheus discovered when he stole the sacred fire, or Tantalus when he stole the food o f the gods, the food o f immortality, and as Kun in the Chinese tradition knew when he stole the divine soil from God in order to save humans from the flood. Similarly, the beneficent role o f the gods does not ex­ clude their visiting upon humans disaster, plague, and war. This jeal­ ous, punitive aspect o f divinity is examined in chapter 3.

In his recent study o f mythological motifs, Bruce Lincoln focuses on the nature and origin o f food, for which he has devised the neolo­ gism sitiogony, from the Greek sitos ‘food, bread, grain’ (1986, 65). Cer­ tainly, in Chinese mythology the origin and production o f food and the cultivation, reclamation, and nurture o f the land are major mytho­ logical themes. Another theme having to do with the physical well­ being o f humans is the search for the drug o f immortality and the art o f healing. But the dominant m otif is water, its management and con­ trol, its resources, its gods, its abundance and scarcity, and its power for good or evil. It is with this m otif that the readings begin.

The River God Chii Ling

The myth o f the river god, Chii Ling, contains several important themes. It recounts the beneficial act o f the river god in easing the flow o f water for the good o f humans. It describes the colossal strength and awesome energy o f the elemental deity. The text does- not specify which river Chii Ling presides over, but the word Ho in this and other texts usually denotes the Yellow River in North China. The name Chu Ling means Giant Deity, or Divine Colossus. The god is also known as Chii Ling Hu.

The first reading below contains two terms from philosophical Taoism: the Tao, or Way, and Yuan, or Prime Cause. This terminology reflects the Taoist nature o f the source that preserved the myth, A Chart of The Magic Art of Being Invisible, an anonymous work probably dating from the Latter Han period, which is extant only in fragments. It is a compendium o f the techniques o f Taoist adepts. The second reading is from A Record of Researches into Spirits, a collection o f myth, fable, legend,

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and folklore compiled by Kan Pao in the fourth century a .d . Its narra­ tives incorporate supernatural phenomena, such as portents, the links among gods, humans, and spirits, strange creatures, metamorphoses, magic, miracles, and divine retribution (K. S. Y. Kao 1985, 4-11). Al­ though the text is o f late provenance, it contains a great deal o f pre-Han mythological material. This reading illustrates how a pristine myth, such as that o f Chii Ling, is reworked to suit the postclassical idiom, with its appeal to tourism and its antiquarian interest in ancient mon­ uments. Both texts exemplify the mythological tenet that although mythologists rely on the earliest texts for source material, they must also explore the vast range o f later eclectic writings in order to discover vestiges o f myth which might otherwise be overlooked. In the case o f the Chii Ling myth, although it has been overlaid with philosophical or antiquarian elements, it can be stripped down to its original base o f the river god utilizing his primeval force for the benefit o f humankind.

There was one Chu Ling. He chanced to obtain the Way o f Divine Prime Cause, and he could create mountains and rivers and send forth rivers and water courses. (Tun chia k’ai shan t’u, Shuo-fu 5/43.ia)

The hills o f the two Hua mountains were originally one mountain that looked down on the river. As the river passed it, it took a wind­ ing course. The river god, Chii Ling, split the mountaintop open with his hand and rent it below with his foot, dividing it in two down the middle in order to ease the river’s flow. Today one may view the print o f his hand on Hua Peak—the outline o f his fingers and palm is still there. His footprint is on Shou-yang Mountain and still survives to this day. (Sou shen chi, T SC C 13.87)

The Fire Driller

The first-fmder myth o f the Fire Driller, Sui-jen, deals with the dis­ covery o f fire and cooking. The Fire Driller may be classified as a meso- cosmic mythological figure in the sense that he is not a god, nor yet quite a human being, but a being somewhere in between. The account in the reading relates that he predates Pao Hsi, another name for Fu Hsi, who is one o f the major culture bearers in the primeval pantheon. It also relates that the Fire Driller was a sage who was able to traverse the cosmos. The moral function o f gods and culture heroes is a repeated motif, and it is clearly stated here: “He provided food to save all living creatures.”

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The name Sui-jen, Fire Driller, is based on a pun. The myth is linked to a strange dark land o f beings who never die called Sui-ming Country, and in this land grows a Sui-wood tree. Both Sui-ming Country and Sui-wood have the same written form for Sui, but the Sui o f Sui-jen is a homophone o f the Sui o f Sui-ming and Sui-wood and is written differently, not surprisingly with the fire indicator. Sui-jen may be translated as ‘Fire Producer’ or ‘Fire Driller’ and is phonetically linked to the igneous Sui-wood and thereby to Sui-ming Country.

An interesting feature o f the Fire Driller myth is that the first- finder learns from a bird how to produce fire from an igneous tree and then teaches humankind the art o f fire making and cooking. Mimesis recurs in mythology worldwide, as does the m otif o f the bird’s creative role. The best known is the myth o f the earth-diver bird, which is wide­ spread in the North American continent (Rooth 1984,168-70).

Other myths in the Chinese tradition relate the discovery o f fire. One tells how the Yellow Emperor used the friction method (as op­ posed to drilling) and then taught humans how to cook to avoid food poisoning. Another relates that it was the god Fu Hsi who gained knowledge o f the origin o f fire by observing the natural phenomenon o f fire arising from lightning strikes (Yuan K ’o 1957, 54 n. 37, n. 51).

None o f the three myths expresses the themes o f theft, guilt, and punishment which are central to the myth o f the theft o f fire by the Titan, Prometheus. Where the two traditions o f Greece and China con­ verge is in the theme o f the demigod or culture hero bringing humans the gift o f fire, which benefits their lives. The distinctively Chinese characteristic o f the fire myth lies in the keen observation o f nature, which may be viewed as a prototype o f natural science, and the appli­ cation o f acquired knowledge to create technology. The Fire Driller reading is from Researches into Lost Records, compiled by Wang Chia, circa the fourth century a .d . This extract does not appear in the extant edition o f Researches, but it is preserved in chapter 869 o f a major Sung dynasty encyclopedia. In general, Researches is a valuable source o f early myth, especially for mythological geography.

Ten thousand miles from the capital o f the Shen-mi Kingdom there is Sui-ming Country. It knows nothing o f the four seasons, or day or night. Its people never die. When they get tired o f life, they live in Heaven. There is a fire tree called Sui-wood. Twisted and gnarled, it spreads over ten thousand hectares. Clouds and fog drift out of it. If twigs broke from it and rubbed together, they produced fire. After

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many generations there was a sage who traveled beyond the sun and moon. He provided food to save all living creatures. He came to Nan- ch’ui. He looked at the tree and saw a bird like an owl, and when it pecked the tree with its beak, fire shot out in a blaze. The sage real­ ized what had happened, so he took a small twig to drill for fire, and he was called Sui-jen, the Fire Driller. This was before Pao-hsi, and roasted food cooked by a fire came from that. (T ’ai-p’ing yii-lan, citing Shih yi chi, SPTK 869.2a)

Fu Hsi’s Inventions and Discoveries

O f seven important classical sources from the Chou period which in various textual contexts place the primeval gods in a sequence, indi­ cating a rudimentary chronology and pantheon, four sources list Fu Hsi as the earliest god in the archaic pantheon. Yet these same texts also frequently mention the names o f faded gods who are only shadowy figures in the mythological tradition but may in their pristine form have been mighty gods who predated even Fu Hsi. Fu Hsi is also men­ tioned in these texts as the earliest o f a series o f three major cosmogonic gods, Fu Hsi, the Farmer God (Shen Nung), and the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti). Although these texts imply that Fu Hsi is a major mythical figure, he in fact plays only a minor role in ancient mythology and was made famous in the Han era through such arcane texts as “Appended Texts” to the Chou Change, or The Classic of Change, the earliest sections o f which date from the middle Chou period, circa 800 B.C. Curiously, Fu Hsi does not feature in that storehouse o f early myths, The Classic of Mountains and Seas.

In the mythic narratives, Fu Hsi is a multifaceted god w ho brought many benefits to humankind. Among his many functions are the inven­ tion o f nets for hunting and fishing, the discovery o f melody and music, the invention o f musical instruments, the invention o f divina­ tion through the Eight Trigrams (Pa kua), the invention o f knotted cord for calculating time and measuring distance, and, according to one ver­ sion o f the fire myth, the discovery o f fire.

In the Latter Han era, Fu Hsi was given the courtesy name T ’ai Hao, as is evidenced by the “Chart o f Personages Ancient and Modern” in the History of the Han by Pan Ku (a .d . 32-92). But in pre-Han sources, T ’ai Hao appears as an independent divinity, and although he is a sha­ dowy figure in these early texts, he is never identified there with Fu Hsi (Karlgren 1946,230). The Classic o f Mountains and Seas identifies T ’ai Hao

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as the founder o f the Pa people (modern Szechwan). T ’ai means ‘Great’ or ‘Supreme’, Hao means ‘Brilliant Light’ .

Unlike the names o f most other gods, Fu Hsi’s name is not fixed but occurs in at least six variations. The most common is Fu Hsi, which may mean Prostrate Breath. There are also Fu Hsi, or Silent Sacrificial Victim; P’ao Hsi, or Kitchen Sacrificial Victim; Pao Hsi, or Embracing Breath; Pao Hsi, or Embracing the Victim; P’ao Hsi, or Roasted Sac­ rificial Victim; and Fu Hsi, or Hidden Play; in which Fu, Hsi, Pao, and so forth are written with different characters. The common denomina­ tor in most o f these names is sitiogonic and sacrificial, and the variants may have to do with regional phonetic variations o f the god’s name.

In the Han dynasty the multifunctional figure o f Fu Hsi frequently became associated with the goddess Nii Kua. The two deities are repre­ sented in Han iconography as two human figures linked by serpentine lower bodies, Fu Hsi holding a carpenter’s square, Nii Kua a pair o f compasses, and both deities holding a length o f knotted cord. Thus the primordial and independent goddess o f cosmogonic myth is domesti­ cated by Han mythographers and made to serve as the exemplar o f the human institution o f marriage. The same systematizing impulse in the late Chou and Han periods resulted in the designation o f Fu Hsi as the god who reigns over the east and controls the season o f spring, hav­ ing the tree god, Kou Mang, as his lesser god.

The first o f the following readings is from the “Appended Texts,” written in the Han dynasty, attached to The Classic of Change, which dates from circa 800-100 B.C. According to tradition, Fu Hsi is believed to have written the “Eight Trigrams” section o f this Classic, King Wen o f the Chou the “Appended Texts,” and Confucius the ‘Ten Wings” to the Classic. The last two date from the Han era, according to modern textual scholarship. In the reading from “Appended Texts,” Fu Hsi’s name appears as Pao Hsi, Embracing the Victim. The text is a mimetic paradigm: the god observes and imitates the natural order o f things and teaches his knowledge to humans.

The second reading also dates from the Han period. It is by the author Wang Y i (a .d . 89-158), w ho came from the region o f ancient Ch’u and was the compiler and editor o f the earliest extant edition o f Songs o f C h ’u, which includes a piece in nine parts by him. Wang Y i was the first commentator o f Songs of C h ’u. In this extract he seeks to explain the divine origin o f Ch’u music.

The third reading is from Researches into Lost Records by Wang Chia (4th century a .d .). Here Fu Hsi’s role as culture bearer is recorded, but,

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more importantly, he is shown as a god who is a divine king come down to earth and enthroned on an earthly altar. In ancient mythic geo­ graphy the cosmos was believed to be a square earth vaulted by a round sky and surrounded by four seas. The text is interesting since it reiter­ ates Wang Y i’s designation o f Fu Hsi as an ancient king. Clearly, by the late Han and post-Han eras, the process o f demythologization was be­ ginning to take effect, and Fu Hsi the god was being rationalized as a partly human king o f the remote archaic past. The fourth reading is by Ko Hung (a .d . 254-334). Again the narrative accentuates the mimetic function o f the culture bearer. It also illustrates how in the post-Han era the identification o f T ’ai Hao with Fu Hsi had become a conven­ tion. Ko Hung, whose text goes by his sobriquet, the Master Embrac- ing-Simplicity, was a Taoist philosopher, alchemist, and pharmacist.

Although the term euhemerization has often been used in Chinese studies to define the process o f rationalizing gods into humans, in fact it means the exact opposite. The original term signifies the rationaliza­ tion o f human hero kings into gods. The Greek writer Euhemerus, o f the late fourth century B.C., wrote a travel novel entitled Sacred Scripture, which survives only in quoted fragments. In this he explained that Ura­ nus, Cronus, and Zeus had originally been great kings but were later the objects o f worship by a grateful people (Rose 1970, 414-15). This misunderstanding and misuse o f the term by Sinologists has recently been discussed critically by William G. Boltz: “euhemerism . . . moresin- ico is technically the precise opposite o f euhemerism in its proper Greek usage” (1981,141).

Long ago, when Pao Hsi ruled the world, he looked upward and meditated on the images in the skies, and he looked downward and meditated on the patterns on the ground. He meditated on the mark­ ings of birds and beasts and the favorable lie o f the land. He drew directly from his own person, and indirectly he drew upon external objects. And so it was that he created the Eight Trigrams in order to communicate with the virtue o f divine intelligence and to classify the phenomena o f all living things. He made knotted cord for nets and fishing pots in hunting and fishing. He probably took these ideas from the hexagram “Clinging.” (Chou yi, Hsi tz’u, 2, Chuan, SPPY 8.3a)

Fu Hsi was an ancient king. He ordered the creation of the zither instrument. The “Chia pien” and “Lao shang” are the names o f tunes. It is said that Fu Hsi made the zither and composed the “Chia pien”

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tune. Someone from Ch’u state composed the “Lao shang,” based on the “Lao shang” tune. They are divine pieces o f music, a delight to lis­ ten to. Some people say that the “Fu Hsi” and the “Chia pien” are divine song tunes. (Wang Y i’s commentary on Ch’u Tz’u, Ta chao, SPTK 10.6a)

Fu Hsi was enthroned on a square altar. He listened to the breath of the eight winds and then designed the Eight Trigrams. (T ’ai-p’ing yii- lan, citing Shih yi chi, SPTK 9.5b)

T ’ai Hao imitated the spider and wove nets. (Pao-p’u Tzu, Neip’ien, Tui su, SPTK 3.5a)

The Farmer God Thrashes Herbs

The Farmer God (Shen Nung) is the culture bearer who taught humans the methods o f agriculture and pharmacopoeia. The etiologi­ cal myth o f the Farmer God underscores several motifs: divine in­ tervention to aid human beings, a god who teaches humans how to manage complex techniques, and the soteriological aspect o f a god who suffers for the sake o f humans.

O f seven major pre-Han sources, four rank the Farmer God after Fu Hsi in the cosmogonic chronology, and one ranks him as the first o f the primeval gods (Karlgren 1946, 207). Like Fu Hsi, the Farmer God was a mythical figure w ho played a minor role in the early texts but became famous through the mythographers o f the Han period, espe­ cially in the “Appended Texts” o f the Han, added to the Chou Classic of Change. Also like Fu Hsi, the Farmer God shares some functions with other deities, for example, agriculture, by which the god Hou Chi is identified. And in the same way as the god Fu Hsi was mistakenly iden­ tified with T ’ai Hao, so the Farmer God came to be identified with Yen Ti, the Flame Emperor. But the separate identities o f the Farmer God and Yen Ti are consistently attested in the pre-Han sources, which recount their individual roles, functions, and attributes.

The first reading below, from the Huai-nan Tzu, underscores the themes o f godly self-sacrifice, medical help for suffering humans, and agricultural knowledge. The second, from The Classic of Change, focuses on the invention o f the plow and how to utilize it and survive in a hos­ tile world. The third reading, from Kan Pao, recounts how the Farmer God whipped the kernel and seed box o f every known plant and its fol­ iage to release its essence, which he himself tasted for its toxic or non-

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c d

Figure 2. a, the Farmer God, Shen Nung, with his plow; inscription reads, “The Farmer God taught agriculture based on land use; he opened up the land and planted millet to encourage the myriad people”; b, the Yellow Emperor, Huang Ti; inscription reads, “The Yellow Emperor created and changed a great many things; he invented weapons and the wells and fields system; he devised upper and lower garments, and established palaces and houses”; c, the God Chuan Hsu; inscription reads, “The God Chuan Hsu, Kao Yang, was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor and the son of Ch’ang Yi”; d, the God K’u, Ti K’u; inscrip­ tion reads, “The God K’u, Kao Hsin, was the great grandson of the Yellow Emperor.” Funerary stone bas-relief, Wu Liang Shrine, Chia-hsiang county, Shantung province, a .d . 151. From Feng and Feng, Research on Stone Carving (1821) 1934, chap. 3.

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toxic qualities. The method o f discovery is one o f trial and error, or a rudimentary experimentation, leading to a protoscientific system o f bo­ tanical classification. Remi Mathieu suggests that the m otif o f the whip signifies regeneration, as with the ancient Roman Lupercalian fertility rites (1989, 68 n. 1). The color m otif o f the god’s whip is significant: the word for the rust color, che, derives from the root word ch’ih ‘scarlet red,’ which is a recurring emblematic color in Chinese mythology. The color che ‘rust’ came to be used for prisoners’ uniforms and as an emble­ matic color o f banishment; thus the m otif appears to denote punish­ ment. It is also worth nothing that the color resembles dried blood.

The fourth reading is from A Record of Accounts of Marvels, attributed to Jen Fang (a .d . 460-508). It is a late text that cites early myths, and sev­ eral o f its passages are written in the antiquarian and touristic mode. Arising from the myth o f the Farmer God’s experiments with plant sub­ stances is his later association with medicine. Several pharmacological works, such as The Classical Pharmacopoeia of the Farmer God, written by Wu P’u in the third century a .d ., bear his name.

In ancient times the people ate plants and drank from rivers, and they picked fruit from trees and ate the flesh o f shellfish or crickets. At that time there was much suffering due to illness and injury from poi­ soning. So the Farmer God taught the people for the first time how to sow the five grains and about the quality o f the soil—which soils were prone to be arid or wetland, which were fertile or barren, which were highland and lowland. He tasted the flavor of every single plant and determined which rivers and springs were sweet or brackish, and he let the people know how to avoid certain things. At that time he himself suffered from poisoning seventy times in one day. (Huai- nan Tzu, Hsiu wu, SPPY 19.1a)

After the Pao Hsi clan had died out, the clan o f the Farmer God emerged. He split wood to make a plowshare and molded wood to make a plowhandle. With the plow he dug the soil and taught the benefit o f this to the world. He probably took this from the hexa­ gram “Advantage.” (Chou yi, Hsi tz’u, 2, Chuan, SPPY 8.3a)

The Farmer God thrashed every single plant with a rust-colored whip. In the end he learned their characteristics — the bland, the toxic, the cool, and the hot, taking their smell and taste as a guide. He sowed the hundred grains. And so all under Heaven called him the Farmer God. (Sou shen chi, T SC C 1.1)

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On Holy Metal Ridge in the Central Plain there still exists the tripod the Farmer God used for thrashing herbs. On Ch’eng-yang Moun­ tain is the spot where the Farmer God thrashed the herbs. One name for it is Farmer God Plain, or Thrashed Herbs Mountain. On its summit is Purple Yang Lookout. Tradition has it that the Farmer God distinguished every single herb, and for over a thousand years one o f these herbs, Dragon Brain, still grows there. (Shu yi chi, HWTS 2.5a)

Ch’ih Yu Invents Metallurgy and Weapons

The god Ch’ih Yu was a culture bearer w ho invented metallurgy and metal weapons. He is also known as the god o f war, and as such he shares many attributes and functions with Indra, Thorr, and Mars. The martial function o f Ch’ih Yu is attested by three major late Chou accounts, including the Kuan Tzu, attributed to Kuan Chung (d. 645 B.C.), from which the first reading below is taken. This text relates that the Yellow Emperor opened up the mountain and that Ch’ih Yu was the first to work metal from there. Several early texts also recount that Ch’ih Yu fought the Yellow Emperor for supremacy but lost. A tradi­ tion deriving from The Classic o f History casts Ch’ih Yu in the role o f the first rebel. This might suggest that the god Ch’ih Yu resembles Lucifer in the biblical tradition, except that in later myth he is treated sympa­ thetically as a hero and became the object o f local worship in the Shan­ tung region. In addition to his being a violent warrior and an inventor o f weapons, Ch’ih Yu’s other attribute is a bull-like appearance with horns and hooves.

The second reading, from Jen Fang’s Record o f Accounts o f Marvels, recounts these attributes o f the god from an antiquarian perspective, accentuating the metallurgical substance o f iron ore in the description o f Ch’ih Yu and his brothers as having “bronze heads and iron brows, and they ate stone pebbles.” A further attribute o f the god, as befits the god o f war, is the color m otif o f brilliant red. Several texts relate that at his execution, Ch’ih Yu’s fetters turned into maple trees, significant for their red foliage. (These and other motifs are discussed in chap. 11, “Metamorphoses. ”)

This second reading is an important document since it summarizes the antiquarian, legendary, ethnographic, and religious aspects o f the god which had accumulated by the fifth century. Jen Fang’s presenta­ tion o f Ch’ih Yu bears some resemblance to the Norse Odinic warriors

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Figure 3. The God of War, Ch’ih Yu, inventor of metal weapons. Funerary stone bas-relief, Wu Liang Shrine, Chia-hsiang county, Shantung province, a .d . 151. From Feng and Feng, Research on Stone Carving (1821) 1934, chap. 3.

described by the O ld Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson (a .d . 1178-1241). Snorri recounts that Odin’s warriors “bit their shields, and were as strong as bears or bulls. They slew men, and neither fire nor iron bit on them. This is called going berserk” (paraphrased by Puhvel 1987,196). The motifs o f biting metal and bull-like features are close parallels.

Jen Fang also mentions the local musical game o f head butting (chiao-ti) with horns, called “Ch’ih Yu’s Game,” which he traces back to the Han era. In his monograph on early Chinese poetry, Jean-Pierre Dieny contests the connection between the “Ch’ih Yu Game” and the head-butting game o f the Han (1968, 58). Derk Bodde notes that the first mention o f the horn butting game occurs in 208 B.C. but that not much is known about it. He suggests that human head-butting con­ tests in the Han were a vestige o f or a humanization o f actual bullfights

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(1975, 206). The name Hsien-yuan in Jen Fang’s account is a pseudo­ name o f the Yellow Emperor and belongs to that category o f names borrowed from faded mythical figures which has been noted in the case o f Fu Hsi/T’ai Hao and the Farmer God/Yen Ti.

In his discussion o f the Ch’ih Yu myth, Mark E. Lewis examines attributes o f the god from the standpoint o f his thesis o f “sanctioned violence” (1990,156-211). The head-butting aspect o f later legend is dis­ cussed by Michael Loewe (1990,140-57).

Then Ko-lu Mountain burst open and there came out water, and metal followed it. Ch’ih Yu gathered it up and fashioned it into swords, armor, spears, and lances. That year he brought under his power nine lords. Then Yung-hu Mountain burst open and there came out water, and metal followed it. Ch’ih Yu gathered it up and fashioned it into the lances of Yung-hu and the dagger-axes ofjui. That year he brought under his power twelve lords. (Kuan Tzu, Ti shu, SPTK 23.1b)

When Hsien-yuan first came to the throne, there were Ch’ih Yu and his brothers, seventy-two in all. They had bronze heads and iron brows, and they ate stone pebbles. Hsien-yuan executed them in the wilderness o f Cho-lu. Ch’ih Yu was able to stir up a dense fog. Cho- lu is now in Chi Province. The spirit of Ch’ih Yu is there. People say that it has a human body, the hooves o f an ox, four eyes, and six hands. Recently the people of Chi Province unearthed a skull that looked like bronze and iron, and it turned out to be the bones of Ch’ih Yu. And now there is Ch’ih Yu’s tooth, which is two inches long and so hard that it is unbreakable. During the Ch’in and Han eras it was said that Ch’ih Yu’s ears and temples were like swords and spears and that his head had horns. It was also said that when he fought against Hsien-yuan, he butted people with his horns and no one could stand up to him. Nowadays there is a piece o f music from Chi Province called “Ch’ih Yu’s Game.” The local people form into twos and threes and wear horns on their heads and butt each other. The horn-butting game that was devised in the Han period was probably based on this tradition. In the villages and in the country­ side o f T ’ai-yuan, horned heads do not feature in the sacrifice to Ch’ih Yu’s spirit. In modern Chi Province there is the Ch’ih Yu River, which is in the wilderness of Cho-lu. In the reign o f Emperor Wu o f the Han, Ch’ih Yu’s spirit was visible in daylight. He had tor­ toise feet and a serpent’s head. When [textual lacuna] a plague broke

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out, the local people had the custom of setting up a spontaneous shrine to him. (Shu yi chi, HWTS 1.2a -b)

Ti K’u Makes Musical Instruments

Ti K ’u, also known as Kao Hsin, figures in the late Chou cosmo­ gonic chronology as a deity coming after the Yellow Emperor and be­ fore the three demigod heroes Yao, Shun, and Yii. The first reading in this section traces Ti K ’u’s magnificent but spurious descent from the Yellow Emperor. The text comes from the first history o f China by the Han historian Ssu-ma Ch’ien (ca. 145-ca. 86 B.C.). The history charts the development o f Chinese civilization from the beginning o f time to the historian’s own day, ending circa 100 B.C. The first chapter opens with accounts o f the gods whom the historian considered to be the pri­ mary deities o f the old pantheon, but his list is a distortion o f early myth mingled with legendary and fictional Han material.

The second reading also reflects the rationalizing trend o f the Han. It is from a text dating three centuries later by Huang-fu M i (a .d . 215-282). His divine genealogies are essentially a reworking o f early mythical accounts to make arcane passages, lacunae, inconsistencies, and old-fashioned ideas more comprehensible and more amenable to third-century a .d . readers.

Like other early gods, such as Fu Hsi and Ch’i, the son o f the demi­ god Yu, Ti K’u is the god o f music. Like them, too, he is particularly associated with specific music titles, such as “Nine Summons,” “Six Ranks,” and “Six Blooms.” Ti K ’u is also identified with the invention o f six percussion instruments (drums, chimes, and bells), and four wind instruments. In this function the god is linked to the mythical Yu Ch’ui, also known as Ch’iao Ch’ui, the divinely gifted inventor and craftsman.

Chinese mythology has a great number o f sacred beasts and birds, some o f which have recognizable shapes, such as felines, eagles, owls, and so forth, while others are multimorphic or fantastic hybrids. Few o f these, however, are connected with individual gods, as the eagle is with Zeus, the cow and peacock with Hera, the owl with Athena, the w o lf and woodpecker with Mars, the swan with Apollo, and the spar­ row with Aphrodite. These creatures o f the Greco-Roman mythologi­ cal tradition, moreover, have a symbolic meaning, such as the owl’s wisdom and the sparrow’s lust (Rose 1970, 65,169). The birds in the Ti K’u myth narrated in the third reading, from the late Chou text Annals of Master Lii, feature the birds o f paradise, the phoenix and the sky-

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pheasant. Yet these are not emblematic o f Ti K ’u himself but are part o f the divine sphere. Here they function as divine messengers visiting a lesser god as a mark o f divine favor. This reading underscores Ti Ku’s function as a divine king endowed with the harmonious gift o f power. Thus the birds o f paradise serve as a m otif o f harmony in the idealized image o f T i K ’u’s divine rule.

Ti K’u, Kao Hsin, was the Yellow Emperor’s great-grandson. (Shih chi, Wu ti pen chi, SPPY 1.7b)

When Ti K’u was born, there was a divine miracle: he uttered his own name, “Ch’un.” (Ti wang shih chi, TSC C 3701.8)

Ti K’u commanded Hsien Hei to compose the music and songs “Nine Summons,” “Six Ranks,” and “Six Blooms.” He ordered Yu Ch’ui to create the small war drum, drum, bell, chime, panpipe, pipe, clay ocarina, flute, hand drum, and hammer bell. Ti K’u then ordered peo­ ple to play them. Some drummed on the drum and war drum, some blew the panpipe, some performed on the pipe and flute so that they made the phoenix and sky-pheasant dance to it. Ti K’u was very pleased, and serene in his regal power. (Lii-shih ch’un-ch’iu, Ku yueh, SPTK 5.9b)

Hou Chi Teaches How to Sow Grain

The functions o f the Farmer God and the god Hou Chi overlap. But whereas the Farmer God has several functions, Hou Chi has two: he is the god o f agriculture and the founder o f the Chou people. Nothing is known o f the birth and career o f the Farmer God, but for Hou Chi a considerable amount o f biographical material appears in one o f the earliest sources o f the mythological tradition, The Classic of Poetry, compiled circa 600 B.C. Among its 305 poems are long dynastic hymns that praise the founding gods o f the Chou and their predeces­ sors the Shang. Poem 245, the first o f the readings below, is a hymn that honors the founding god o f the Chou. It is written from the point o f view o f a Chou noble house and recounts the myth o f Hou Chi from his miraculous conception to his inauguration o f the sacrifice to his name, which sacrifice is performed and described in the closing stanzas o f the hymn. The poem combines the themes o f commemoration o f the founder god Hou Chi, praise to the ancestors o f the living members o f the household, propitiation for a good harvest, and the continuity o f

Culture Bearers ~ 55

the family line descended from the god. The narrative fits the pattern o f the first-finder and links this m otif to two foundation myths, the founding o f the Chou and the founding o f the first Chou sacrifice to the god o f agriculture.

The second reading is a prose account o f the Hou Chi myth from the “Basic Annals o f the Chou” by Ssu-ma Ch’ien. Although it was written some five centuries after the poem’s compilation date, it follows the early version with remarkable fidelity. But halfway through his nar­ rative the Han historian grafts on another, late mythologem o f Yao and Shun derived from The Classic o f History. According to the author o f The Classic of History, time began with Yao. Thus the primeval gods o f the traditional pantheon are subsumed under the figures o f Yao and his suc­ cessor Shun and made to serve subordinate roles. (The mythical figure Ch’ih Yu is the only exception to this rule.) B y the Han era, The Classic of History had acquired the status o f orthodoxy, constituting the true version o f historical events and also the ideal model for the writing o f ancient history. Many writers, including Ssu-ma Ch’ien, therefore, sought to give the subjects o f their biographies the seal o f approval by linking them to the sage-rulers o f the Golden Age o f Antiquity, Yao, Shun, and Yii. Consequently in Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s biography o f Hou Chi, the primeval god is subordinated to Yao and Shun and is demoted from god o f agriculture to a mere minister o f agriculture in their admin­ istration. It is possible to hypothesize that in using the paradigm o f Yao and Shun in The Classic of History, Ssu-ma Ch’ien intended to demon­ strate that the gods o f the Chou were desacralized when the sociopolit­ ical structure o f the Chou dynasty had been dismantled by the Ch’in and Han conquerors.

The designation Hou in the name Hou Chi is the subject o f consid­ erable debate. Many Sinologists translate it as the title o f a male deity, rendering it as Lord Millet. Yet the title is o f ambiguous gender. The deity Hou t’u, for example, is rendered as Lord Earth or as Empress Earth or Earth Goddess. The rendition o f Hou-t’u as a female sovereign divinity is followed by Edouard Chavannes (1910, 521-25) and more recently by Remi Mathieu (1989,195). If the title o f Hou Chi were ren­ dered in the feminine, as Empress Millet or Goddess Millet, this myth­ ical figure would find a parallel with the general pattern o f female cereal deities, o f whom Demeter (Ceres) is the foremost example. In the readings below the name Hou Chi is rendered as Lord Millet.

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She who first gave birth to our people Was Chiang Yuan. And how did she give birth to our people? She performed the Yin and Ssu sacrifices well So that she might not be without child. She trod in the big toe o f God’s footprint And was filled with joy and was enriched; She felt a movement and it soon came to pass That she gave birth and suckled The one who was Hou Chi.

She fulfilled her due months And her firstborn came forth, With no rending or tearing, Without injury or harm. And this revealed the miraculous, For did not God give her an easy birth, Was he not well pleased with her sacrifice? And so she bore her child with comfort.

She laid it in a narrow alley But ox and sheep suckled it. She laid it in a wood on the plain But it was found by woodcutters on the plain. She laid it on chill ice But birds covered it with their wings. Then the birds went away And Hou Chi wailed, Really loud and strong; The sound was truly great.

Then he crawled in truth; He straddled and strode upright To look for food for his mouth. He planted large beans, And the large beans grew thick on the vine; His ears of grain were heavy, heavy; His hemp and wheat grew thick; The gourd stems were laden with fruit.

Hou Chi’s gardening Was the way of the natural plant. He cleared the rank grass

Culture Bearers ~ 57

And planted a yellow crop there, Growing even and rich, Well planted and well eared; It was firm and it was good, The ears well ripened, the grain well thickened. Then he made his home in T ’ai.

He sent down cereals truly blessed, Both black millet and double-kernel millet, Pink-sprouting millet and white; Black and double-kernel millet spread all over, And he reaped many an acre. Pink-sprouting and white millet spread all over, Carried on his back, carried over his shoulder. He brought them home and inaugurated the sacrifice.

Our sacrifice, what is it like? Some pound, some bale, Some sift, some tread. We wash it soaking, soaking wet; We steam it piping, piping hot. Then we plan with thoughtful care: Gathering southern-wood, offering rich fat, We take a ram to make the Wayside Sacrifice, Roasting and broiling, To usher in the New Year.

The bronze pots filled to the brim, The bronze pots and cauldrons. As soon as their aroma rises up, God on high enjoys it with pleasure. The rich fragrance is right and proper, For Hou Chi inaugurated the sacrifice; With no fault or blemish his people Have continued it to the present day.

(Shih ching, 245, Sheng rnin, SPPY I7.i.ia-i2a)

Hou Chi of the Chou was named Ch’i, the Abandoned. His mother, the daughter o f the Yu-t’ai clan, was called Chiang Yuan. Chiang Yuan was Ti K’u’s first consort. . . . When Ch’i was a child, he looked imposing, as i f he had the bold spirit o f a giant. When he went out to play, he liked planting hemp and beans, and his hemp and beans were very fine. When he became an adult, he also grew very skilled

58 — Chinese Mythology

at plowing and farming. He would study the proper use o f the land, and where valleys were suitable he planted and he reaped. Everyone went out and imitated him. Emperor Yao heard about him and pro­ moted Ch’i to master o f agriculture, so that the whole world would benefit from him and have the same success. Emperor Shun said, “Ch’i, the black-haired people are beginning to starve. You are the Lord Millet [Hou Chi]. Plant the seedlings in equal measure through­ out the hundred valleys.” He gave Ch’i the fiefdom o f T ’ai with the title o f Lord Millet, and he took another surname from the Chi clan. (Shih chi, Chou pen chi, SPPY 4.ia-b)

Po Yi Tames Birds and Beasts

One o f the confusing aspects in the study o f myth is the phenom­ enon o f names. Either one mythical figure has a multiplicity o f names, or a variety o f figures have the same name. Both aspects come into play with the name o f the mythical figure Po Y i. In the first reading below one Po Y i, originally named Ta Fei, is said to be the ancestor o f the Ch’in people, an assistant o f Yii in the task o f controlling the flood, besides being a minister o f Shun and domesticator o f birds and beasts. The passage is by Ssu-ma Ch’ien, who relates the myth o f the ancestor o f the Ch’in people, w ho gained supremacy in the ancient world and conquered the mighty Chou. The same technique the historian used in the myth o f Hou Chi o f linking the mythical figure to the sage-rulers Yao and Shun is evident here, in addition to the historian’s convention o f adducing a divine genealogy for his biographical subject.

The second reading refers to another mythical Po Y i, the name Y i written with a different character. In the early tradition this Po Y i is a separate figure, although both share the function o f the domestication o f beasts. B y the Han period, however, the Po Y i who was ancestor o f the Ch’in and the Po Y i who was the legendary domesticator o f animals had coalesced into one and the same figure. A third Po Y i, written with yet another graph for Y i, is the ancestor o f the Chiang clan. A fourth, with his brother Shu Ch’i, was a hero o f the Shang Dynasty (chap. 13).

Another characteristic o f mythology is the impulse toward creat­ ing lines o f descent from a god to the ancestor o f a clan or individual. In chapter 5 o f his history “Basic Annals o f the Ch’in Dynasty” Ssu-ma Ch’ien provides the line o f Po Y i with divine descent from the god Chuan Hsu and with a miraculous birth. Such genealogies do not, on the whole, occur in mythic narratives in the late Chou tradition, and

Culture Bearers ~ 59

they are to be judged as fallacious concoctions to flatter a royal line. Their very tidiness when compared with the often inchoate matter o f early mythic narratives makes them particularly suspect.

The mythic narrative o f Po Y i in The Classic o f History contains designations o f animal names which have been taken to imply the prac­ tice o f animal totemism in archaic China. Although such passages as this may have as their underlying pattern a correlation with the bear cult o f the Ainu tribe o f Japan and other animal cults, it is salutary to be mindful o f the dangers o f superficial parallels and hasty judgments. In his discussion o f the pitfalls o f what he termed the “totemic illu­ sion,” the anthropologist Michael A. A. Goldenweiser noted that there is not necessarily a totemic link among the three factors o f clan organi­ zation; clan appropriation o f animal, bird, or plant emblems; and a belief in a kinship or genealogical relationship between clan or clan member and such an emblem (cited in Mendelson 1968,127). Since the second reading, from The Classic of History, clearly indicates the appro­ priation o f animal emblems but fails to show either totemic descent o f humans from those emblems or the cult o f the animal totem by those humans, the passage must be ruled out as textual evidence for totemism in archaic China.

The ancestor o f the Ch’in people was a descendant o f the god Chuan Hsu. His granddaughter was called Nii-hsiu. When Nii-hsiu was weaving, a black bird dropped an egg. Nu-hsiu swallowed it and gave birth to Ta Yeh. Ta Yeh took the daughter o f the Shao-tien as his wife, and her name was Nii-hua. Nii-hua gave birth to Ta Fei, who controlled the inundated earth with Yu. Once he had completed this work . . . he aided Shun in taming birds and beasts. A great number o f birds and beasts were tamed, and that is why he became known as Po Yi. (Shih chi, Ch’in pen chi, SPPY 5.ia-b)

Emperor [Shun] said, “Who will control the plants and trees, the birds in the highlands and lowlands?” Everyone said, “Y i is the one.” The Emperor said, “Excellent! Now, Yi, you will do the work that has been giving me cause for concern.” Y i bowed and kowtowed, and he assigned tasks to Scarlet, Tiger, Bear, and P’i-bear. The em­ peror said, “Excellent! Set out, then. They will go with you.” (Shang shu, Shun tien, SPPY 3.i4b-i5a)

6

Myths of the Yellow Emperor

T h e god called the Yellow Emperor played a minor role in the early tradition, but he gradually acquired a complex biography, an elab­ orate genealogy, and a cycle o f folkloristic legends that gave him an exalted status in the divine pantheon. Although later tradition made the Yellow Emperor the supreme deity o f the Taoist pantheon, when philo­ sophical Taoism had acquired a more religious coloration and was espoused by imperial rulers, and although traditional histories have presented this god as the pacific culture bearer, the early tradition clearly shows that the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti) is first and foremost a warrior-god who successfully fought against a series o f enemies — the Flame Emperor, Ch’ih Yu the god o f war, the Four Emperors, the hero Hsing T ’ien, and the one-legged god K ’uei, besides many other lesser known mythical figures. When the warrior function o f the Yellow Emperor is compared with gods in mythology worldwide, his battles are violent but not frenzied, purposeful but not mindless, pacific in motive but not anarchic in the way that Thorr, Indra, and Odin are in their warrior function. In addition to his functions as warrior and peacemaker, this god also had the function o f culture bearer in later local traditions. For the Han historian Ssu-ma Ch’ien, the Yellow Em­ peror symbolized the fountainhead o f Chinese culture and civilization.

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Myths o f the Yellow Emperor — 131

The Battle between the Yellow Emperor and the Flame Emperor

The first two readings, from the early and later tradition, narrate the battle between the Yellow Emperor and his brother, the Flame Em­ peror, Yen Ti. Each ruled half the world but fought for total supremacy. Georges Dumezil has shown that the concept o f dual sovereignty is a major m otif in myth and is epitomized in Indo-European mythology by the Indie gods Mitra and Varuna (cited in Littleton 1973, 64-65). In other traditions the contest for total supremacy by brothers is illus­ trated by the myths o f Romulus and Remus and Cain and Abel, in which, like the Flame Emperor, Remus and Abel are killed. As such, the m otif o f dual supremacy and the m otif o f fraternal enmity charac­ terize the narrative o f the two Chinese gods and fit the paradigm o f binary opposition.

A second major m otif in the narrative o f the hostility between the two brothers is the elemental dualism o f fire and water. As Puhvel notes, “Fire and water are archetypally antithetical in the physical world and in human perception alike. In the former their incompatibility is relentless, but in the mind o f mythopoeic man it has created its own dia­ lectic o f conflict resolution that is reflected in ancient tradition” (1987, 277). B y tragic necessity, the antithetical weapon o f water controlled by the Yellow Emperor conquers the elemental weapon o f fire. The myth is narrated in Annals of Master Lii and Huai-nan Tzu o f the third and sec­ ond centuries B.C. A variant occurs in the third reading, from New Doc­ uments ("second century B.C.), which says that the weapons were not elemental fire and water but clubs.

The fourth reading is from the Lieh Tzu, which is a late text but incorporates early myth material. It probably dates from the fourth cen­ tury a .d . In this text the image o f the all-conquering warrior-god is underscored by his control o f the natural world, so that besides the ele­ ment o f water, the god has power over spirits and the most violent o f the birds and beasts.

Because the fighting had gone on for a long time, the Yellow Em­ peror and the Flame Emperor used the elements of water and fire. (Lii-shih ch’un-ch’iu, Tang ping, SPTK 7.3a)

Because the Flame Emperor used fire to destroy him, the Yellow Emperor finally captured him. (Huai-nan Tzu, Ping lueh, SPPY 15.1b)

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The Flame Emperor had the same father and mother as the Yellow Emperor, and he was his younger brother. Each possessed one half o f the universe. The Yellow Emperor followed the Way, but the Flame Emperor refused to obey. So they fought on the Waste o f Cho- lu. Blood flowed in streams from their clubs. (Hsin shu, SPTK 2.3a)

When the Yellow Emperor and the Flame Emperor fought on the Wastes o f P’an-ch’iian, all the bears, grizzly bears, wolves, panthers, cougars, and tigers were in his [the Yellow Emperor’s] vanguard, while the eagles, fighting pheasants, falcons, and kites served as his banners and flags. (Lieh Tzu, Huang ti, SPPY 2.22a)

After three battles, he [the Yellow Emperor] succeeded in fulfilling his ambition. (Ta Tai Li chi, Wu ti te, SPTK 7.1b)

Ch’ih Yu Attacks the Yellow Emperor

The next two narratives, both from late chapters o f The Classic of Mountains and Seas (first century a .d .), deal with the battle between the Yellow Emperor and the god o f war, Ch’ih Yu. The name Ch’ih is based on the word for a reptile (ch’ung), a flying creature that belongs to air, water, and earth. Besides his other functions as the god o f war and inventor o f military weapons, Ch’ih Yu is a rain god with power over the Wind God (Feng Po) and the Rain Master (Yu Shih). But the Yellow Emperor has control over superior forces, the Responding Dragon (Ying lung) and Drought Fury, his daughter, who can both afflict the world with severe drought by withholding water and rain.

In one version o f this war o f the gods, the battlefield is said to be Cho-lu, the same place-name as the arena o f the fighting between the Yellow Emperor and the Flame Emperor. Karlgren has shown that cer­ tain place-names are mythopoeic in the sense that they are used in sev­ eral different narratives “simply because they have a nimbus, which lends glory to the myth in question” (1946, 210). These are names like Ch’iung-sang or Exhausted Mulberry, M ing-t’iao, and Cho-lu.

The two readings from The Classic of Mountains and Seas on the Ch’ih Yu/Yellow Emperor myth demonstrate another mythographic point: that the same source may present different versions o f a myth. In the first reading the battle is said to be between Ch’ih Yu and the Yellow Emperor, who is aided by Responding Dragon and Drought Fury. In the second, the executioner is said to be Responding Dragon, and neither the Yellow Emperor nor Drought Fury appears. In this version,

Myths o f the Yellow Emperor —• 133

Figure 6. Responding Dragon executes the God of War, Ch’ih Yu, after his battle with the Yellow Emperor. Funerary stone bas-relief, Wu Liang Shrine, Chia- hsiang county, Shantung province, a .d . 151. From Feng and Feng, Research on Stone Carving (1821) 1934, chap. 3.

Ch’ih Yu is linked with K ’ua-fu, who, according to several mythic nar­ ratives, was killed because he dared to challenge the power o f the sun in a race against time. Paired in this way, Ch’ih Yu and K ’ua-fu are gods executed by Responding Dragon for the crime o f hubris.

The latter version is a valuable document insofar as it combines aspects o f myth and o f ritual. The myth o f Responding Dragon in his function o f drought bringer may be viewed as “the spoken correlative o f the acted rite,” in this case, the rite o f rainmaking.

In the great wilderness there is a mountain called Pu-chii, where riv­ ers and seas flow in. There are the Related Brothers Mountains and there is the Terrace o f Kung Kung. Bowmen did not dare to go north

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o f it. There was someone dressed in green clothes named the Yellow Emperor’s daughter, Drought Fury. Ch’ih Yu took up arms and at­ tacked the Yellow Emperor, so the Yellow Emperor commanded the Responding Dragon to launch an attack against him in the wilder­ ness o f Chi Province. The Responding Dragon stored up all the water. Ch’ih Yu asked the Wind God and the Rain Master to release a cloudburst. Then the Yellow Emperor sent down the Daughter of Heaven named Drought Fury and the rain stopped. Then he killed Ch’ih Yu. (Shan hai ching, Ta huangpei ching, SPPY i7-4b-5b)

In the northwest corner o f the vast wilderness there is a mountain called Cruel-Plow Earth-Mound. The Responding Dragon lived at its southern boundary. He killed Ch’ih Yu and K’ua-fu. He did not succeed in getting back up to the sky, so there were frequent droughts on earth. But during these droughts someone assumed the guise of the Responding Dragon and so they managed to receive a heavy rain­ fall. (Shan hai ching, Ta huang tung ching, SPPY i4.6a-b)

The Yellow Emperor Captures the K’uei Monster

The warrior god’s battle with the god K ’uei is also recounted in The Classic of Mountains and Seas (in a first-century a .d . chapter): K ’uei is a one-legged storm god o f mountain and water. He is killed by the Yellow Emperor, who uses his hide as a war drum to bring the world to order through terror. With its typical rationalizing logic, The Classic of History historicizes this god as Yao’s humanized, and sanitized, master o f music, with a magical talent (his vestigial divinity) for making ani­ mals dance. This version o f the K ’uei myth is the subject o f a classical joke: when Confucius was asked i f “K ’uei really only had one foot?” (K ’uei yi tsu), he avoided the mythological account with the punning reply, “One K ’uei was enough!” (K ’uei yi tsu yeh). The purely mythical, unhistoricized figure o f K ’uei is, however, attested by an early text that predates The Classic o f Mountains and Seas and The Classic o f History. In the Chuang Tzu, K ’uei is mentioned as a storm god with one leg who lives in the mountains (Watson 1968,183, 203).

In the eastern seas there is Flowing Waves Mountain. It sticks up seven thousand leagues from the sea. There is a beast on its summit which looks like an ox with a blue body, and it has no horns and only one hoof. When it comes in and out o f the water there are severe

Myths o f the Yellow Emperor ~ 135

storms. Its light is like the sun and moon; its voice is like thunder. Its name is K’uei. The Yellow Emperor captured it and used its hide for a drum. When he struck it with a bone from the thunder beast the sound was heard for five hundred leagues, and it made the world stand in awe. (Shan hai ching, Ta huang tung ching, SPPY 14.6b)

The Yellow Emperor Conquers the Four Emperors

A further aspect o f the Yellow Emperor cycle o f myths is his battle with the Four Emperors, which is preserved in The Myriad Sayings of Master Chiang, dating from the third century a .d . The mythic text states the ambiguity inherent in a warrior-god who hates war: “He took no pleasure in war or aggression” but w ho nevertheless goes on “to destroy the Four Emperors.” This ambiguity may simply mean that the warrior- god must use destructive force to bring about constructive peace. Yet, when this account is compared with earlier mythic texts from Huai-nan Tzu, Annals ofMaster Lti, and The Classic of Mountains and Seas concern­ ing battles with the Flame Emperor and Ch’ih Yu, it is clear that a mor­ alizing element has crept in. Master Chiang, or Chiang Chi, clearly felt that the primeval violence o f the Yellow Emperor had to be toned down and explained in palatable terms for the more cultivated society o f the Wei dynasty, in which he lived and wrote. B y a late tradition, the Four Emperors are T ’ai Hao, god o f the east, with the emblematic color green; the Flame Emperor, god o f the south, with the color scarlet; Shao Hao, god o f the west, white; and Chuan Hsu, god o f the north, black. If this tradition is to be believed, the Flame Emperor rose again and had to be killed twice.

At the beginning o f the Yellow Emperor’s era he cared for his own person and loved his people. He took no pleasure in war or aggres­ sion. But the Four Emperors each took the name of their regional color and gathered together to plot against him. Each day they threatened him near his city walls, refusing to remove their armor. The Yellow Emperor sighed and said, “If the ruler on high is in dan­ ger, the people beneath will be unstable. If the ruler suffers the loss o f his kingdom, his officers will ‘marry’ themselves off to another kingdom. Because o f this kind o f damage, it is the same as harboring bandits, isn’t it? Today I stand at the head o f the people, but you four robbers oppose me and cause my army to be on the alert constantly.”

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Then he moved his army over to the fortified walls in order to destroy the Four Emperors. (Chiang Tzu wan chi lun, Huang Ti wei ssu tao, SYTS 1.4a)

The Yellow Emperor Loses the Black Pearl

The Chuang Tzu, the earliest verifiable work o f philosophical Tao­ ism, is a valuable source o f primal myth, but its value is seriously dimin­ ished by the practice o f its author, Chuang Chou, or Master Chuang, o f utilizing myth for the purpose o f propounding and illustrating his philosophical beliefs, in so doing often distorting those myths. This tendency is exemplified by Chuang Tzu’s treatment o f the mythical figure o f the Yellow Emperor. The only reference to the god as a war­ rior occurs in a negative critique o f his battle with Ch’ih Yu (Watson 1968, 327). Most o f the other references to the Yellow Emperor in Chuang Tzu are ambiguous or negative, since he casts him in the role o f a lesser god and as a demythologized figure who subserviently seeks the Truth from wiser Taoists or innocents (ibid., 119, 266). Therefore, while Chuang Tzu subverts the classical mythological tradition for polemical and satirical purposes, he embarks on a new mythopoeic course, creating his own myths.

The first reading on the myth o f the Yellow Emperor’s black pearl is a prime example o f this mythopoeia. In it the philosopher argues that knowledge, sensory excellence, and technical debating skills are the marks o f civilized behavior, which has to be learned, whereas inborn nature or instinct, characterized as Shapeless, belongs to a higher order o f human existence. The myth o f the instinctual versus the civilized has been explored brilliantly by Levi-Strauss in his analyses o f the Bororo myths o f Central Brazil, in which he establishes his paradigmatic par­ adox o f le cm: le cuit ‘the raw: the cooked’, or the primitive and civilized (Levi-Strauss 1970).

The second reading is a variant text o f the black pearl myth. It comes from a T ’ang source, Seven Tomes from the Cloudy Shelf a Taoist text. The third reading is from a Sung dynasty account o f the eleventh century a .d .

The Yellow Emperor was traveling north of Scarlet River. He climbed up the Mound o f K’un-lun and gazed south. On his way back he dropped his black pearl. He told Chili [Knowledge] to look for it, but he could not find it. He told Ch’ih Kou [Wrangling Debate] to

Myths o f the Yellow Emperor ~ 137

look for it, but he could not find it. So he told Hsiang-kang [Shape­ less] to do so, and Hsiang-kang found it. The Yellow Emperor said, “That’s amazing! How was Hsiang-kang the one who was able to find it?” (Chuang Tzu, T ’ien-ti, SPPY 5.2b~3a)

He [the Yellow Emperor] made Kang-hsiang search for it and he found it. Later, because the daughter o f the Meng clan, the Lady Chi- hsiang, stole the black pearl, he [Kang-hsiang] drowned in the sea and became a god. (Yun chi ch’i 'ch’ien, Hsien-yuan pen chi, SPTK 100.23a)

According to ancient history, when the daughter of Chen Meng’s clan stole the Yellow Emperor’s primeval pearl, he sank into the river and drowned. He changed into the god o f this place. Today he is the god o f the River Tu-miao. (Chang T ’ang-ying’s commentary on Shu t’ao wu, HH 1.9b)

The Yellow Emperor Questions the Dark Lady on the Art of War

The last reading is a fragment from the fourth to the fifth century preserved in a Sung dynasty encyclopedia. The narrative underscores the Yellow Emperor’s function as a warrior god, but it demythologizes the god by making him subservient to a newly invented Taoist god­ dess. To borrow Puhvel’s phrase, the Dark Lady is “a latter-day mani­ pulative invention,” designed to enhance the new deity o f the post-Han neo-Taoist pantheon.

The Yellow Emperor and Ch’ih Yu fought nine times, but for nine times there was no winner. The Yellow Emperor returned to T ’ai Mountain for three days and three nights. It was foggy and dim. There was a woman with a human head and bird’s body. The Yellow Emperor kowtowed, bowed twice, and prostrated himself, not dar­ ing to stand up. The woman said, “I am the Dark Lady. What do you want to ask me about?” The Yellow Emperor said, “Your humble ser­ vant wishes to question you about the myriad attacks, the myriad victories. ” Then he received the art o f war from her. (T’ai-p’ing yii-lan, citing Huang Ti wen Hsuan nil chan fa, SPTK 15.9b)

Myths of Yii the Great

the major primeval figures, including the Yellow Emperor, Y i the Archer, and Yao and Shun, Yii the Great has attracted the most mythological stories and legends. Unlike Y i the Archer, Yii is not an ambiguous figure; he is consistently presented as a beneficent demi­ god, savior o f humankind, and, in some early traditions, the exemplar o f the dutiful minister who put public duty before private interests.

It will be apparent from earlier readings and in discussions thus far that there are four flood myths in the Chinese tradition. The first has Kung Kung as its central figure and is narrated in Kuan Tzu, Kuo yii, and Huai-nan Tzu. In a second flood myth, Nu Kua plays the major role. The third is the Kun flood myth, and the fourth is the Yii myth.

Yii Controls the Flood

Yu is mainly associated with the Kun-Yii tradition o f the flood myth which is told in many versions in most o f the early texts. The first two readings from the “ Questions o f Heaven” and The Classic o f Moun­ tains and Seas, focus on the myth o f the orphaned son born by a miracle who carried on the work o f his disgraced and executed father. The third reading, from The Classic o f History, underscores the topographical re­ construction and hydraulic work o f the hero as he controls the world

146

Myths o f Yii the Great ~ 147

flood. In this version, Yii appears not so much a demigod as a human­ ized minister o f Shun. The fourth reading, from Shih Tzu, corroborated in Chuang Tzu, chapter 33, gives a graphic account o f the physical extremes Yii suffered when delivering the world from the misery o f the flood. Yu’s heroic labors are the subject o f a joke in the Chronicle of Tso, when Duke Ting, Prince o f Lu quipped in the year 540 B.C., “If it had not been for Yu, we would just be fishes!” (Chao kung First Year, Couvreur 1914, 3.19).

If Kun was not fit to control the flood, why was he entrusted with this task? They all said, “Do not fear! Try him and see if he can accom­ plish it.” . . . Lord Yii issued from Kun’s belly. How did he metamor­ phose? Yu inherited his legacy and continued the work of his father. Why was his plan different, even though the work was already in progress? How did he dam the flood waters at their deepest? How did he demarcate the Nine Lands o f the earth? Over the rivers and seas what did the Responding Dragon achieve, and where did he pass? What plan did Kun devise? What did Yu succeed in doing? (Ch’u Tz’u, Tien wen, SPTK 3.5b-7b)

Floodwater dashed up against the skies. Kun stole God’s self-renew­ ing soil in order to dam the floodwater, but he did not wait for God’s official permission. God ordered Chu Yung to kill Kun on the ap­ proaches to Feather Mountain. Yu was born from Kun’s belly. So in the end, God issued a command allowing Yii to spread out the self-replacing soil so as to quell the floods in the Nine Provinces. (Shan hai ching, Hai nei ching, SPPY i8.8b-9a)

The Nine Provinces were standardized. The four quarters were made habitable. The Nine Mountains were deforested and put down for arable land. The sources o f the Nine Rivers were dredged. The Nine Marshes were banked up. The Four Seas had their concourses opened freely. The Six Treasuries were well attended to. All the soils were compared and classified. Their land values and revenues were care­ fully controlled. (Shang shu, Yu kung, SPPY 6.16b)

In ancient times, Dragon Gate had not been cleft open, Lii-liang had not been bored through, and the river passed above Meng-men, its waters greatly swollen and its current irregular, so that it destroyed all in its path, the hills and high mounds, and this was what was known as the Flood. Yii channeled the river and sluiced off the Great River. For ten years he did not visit his home, and no nails grew on

148 ~ Chinese Mythology

his hands, no hair grew on his shanks. He caught an illness that made his body shrivel in half, so that when he walked he could not lift one leg past the other, and people called it “the Yii walk.” (Shih Tzu, SPPY 1.16b)

The Signs o f Yu’s Divine Favor

The many and diverse accounts o f Yii are rich in mythic themes. The flood myth, o f course, has numerous parallels in traditions world­ wide, but the Chinese flood myth is distinctive in the sense that the flood is eventually controlled not by a supreme deity but by a demigod with a nature nearer to the human than the divine. Kun’s theft o f the miraculous substance from God and the subsequent punishment o f the altruistic thief also has parallels, such as Prometheus’s theft o f fire and Tantalus’s theft o f the food o f the gods. The first reading, from “ Ques­ tions o f Heaven,” relates the myth o f divinely endowed creatures, such as the Responding Dragon and the turtle, who help Yii by signaling a passage through the floodwater. The second reading, from a fourth- century a .d . text, elaborates this myth. There is also Yu’s miraculous birth from the belly o f his father’s corpse and the birth o f his own son from a mother turned to stone, and these miracles mark Yii as the hero favored by God and nature. Yu’s metamorphosis into a bear echoes that o f his dead father (following one o f several versions o f Kun’s metamor­ phosis).

How did he dam the floodwaters at their deepest? How did he de­ marcate the Nine Lands o f the earth? Over the rivers and seas what did the Responding Dragon fully achieve and where did he pass? What plan did Kun devise? What did Yii succeed in doing? (Ch’u Tz’u, T ’ien wen, SPTK 3.6b~7b)

Yu exhausted his strength in cutting dikes and ditches and in con­ ducting the courses o f rivers and leveling mounds. The yellow dra­ gon dragged its tail in front o f him, while the dark tortoise carried green mud on its back behind him. (Shih yi chi, HWTS 2.2b)

Yu’s Function as Warrior

A further image emerges from the narratives o f Yii the warrior in his punishment o f Fang-feng, Kung Kung, Hsiang Liu, and the Wu- chih-ch’i beast. In this punitive aspect, his function o f warrior-god

Myths o f YU the Great ~ 149

most nearly coincides with the warrior function o f the Yellow Em­ peror. The chastisement o f the god Fang-feng is linked to the story o f the first assembly o f the gods, told in the first reading, from a first- century a .d . text. The second reading, from a late Chou era text circa the fifth century B.C., purports to cite Confucius’s (551-479 B.C.) expla­ nation o f the Fang-feng myth. According to this account, the god must have been a giant.

The third reading, from a second-century B.C. text, recounts how Kung Kung caused an inundation that disturbed the cosmos. The fourth reading, from a philosophical work o f the Confucian school dat­ ing from the third century B.C., tells briefly how Yu punished the mar­ plot Kung Kung to save the people.

The fifth reading is linked to the myth o f Yii’s punishment o f Kung Kung. The account, from a second-century B.C. chapter o f The Classic o f Mountains and Seas, states that the poisonous monster Hsiang Liu was Kung Kung’s official. The execution o f this nine-headed, serpentine monster is one o f the tasks o f Yii in the concatenation o f stories in the myth o f Yii and the flood.

The sixth reading illustrating the warrior function o f the demigod Yu is notable more for its literariness than for its mythological form. It is from Li Kung-tso’s narrative “Prefect Li T ’ang.” It relates Yii’s strug­ gle with the Wu-chih-ch’i beast in his effort to control the flood. It is the first written occurrence o f this legend. Probably based on the classical myth o f K ’uei, the one-legged storm god, it constitutes an interesting example o f fiction based on myth, which itself inspired numerous pieces o f mythopoeic literature. The Yuan dynasty dramatist Wu Chang-ling, for example, cast Wu-chih-ch’i in the role o f the sister o f the legendary character o f the Monkey King, whereas the M ing novelist Wu Ch’eng- en (ca. 1506-ca. 1582), converted Wu-chih-ch’i into Monkey, Sun Wu- k’ung (Lu Hsiin 1964,109-10).

From the beginning, Yii was so anxious for the people that he rescued them from the flood. He reached Great Yueh. He went up Mao Mountain and held a major assembly [k’uai-chi]. He rewarded the virtuous and gave fiefdoms to the meritorious. He changed the name of Mao Mountain to K’uai-chi. (Yueh chueh shu, Wai chuan chi ti, SPPY 8.1a)

Confucius said, “I have heard this said about it. Long ago, Yii assem­ bled all the gods on the Mountain o f K’uai-chi. Fang-feng arrived too late. Yii killed him and beheaded his corpse. One joint o f his

Myths of Yu the Great ~ 151

skeleton filled up a whole cart because it was so huge!” (Kuo yii, Lu yti, 2, SPTK 5.i3b-i4a)

In the era of Shun, Kung Kung stirred the floodwater to make crash­ ing waves, so that they rose as far as K’ung-sang [Hollow Mul­ berry]. (Huai-nan Tzu, Pen ching, SPPY 8.6a)

Yu achieved success in his labors. He curbed the inundation and so he rescued the people from disaster, and he exiled Kung Kung. (Hsun Tzu, Ch’eng hsiang, SPPY 18.3b)

Kung Kung’s official was called Hsiang Liu. He had nine heads, so he ate from nine mountains at the same time. Whatever Hsiang Liu knocked against became marshy or a ravine. Yii killed Hsiang Liu. His blood stank, so that it was impossible to plant the five grains. Yu excavated the area and filled it three times, but it leaked three times. He therefore created out o f that place a terrace for the gods north of K’un-lun and east of Jou-li. This Hsiang Liu had nine heads with human faces and a snake’s body, and he was green. (Shan hai ching, Hai wai pei ching, SPPY 8.ib-2a)

When Yii was controlling the floods, he came to T’ung-po Moun­ tain three times, and each time there were terrifying windstorms and rolling thunder, so that the rocks roared and the trees groaned. The Five Lords [var. The Earth Lord] blocked the rivers and the Old Man o f Heaven summoned his army, but to no avail. Yii grew angry and ordered all the spirits to assemble before him, and he entrusted his command to K’uei-lung. T ’ung-po and the thousand rulers bowed low and sought his orders. Yii then imprisoned Master Hung-meng, Master Chang-shang, Master Tou-lu, and Master Li-lou. And he hunted down the river god o f the Huai and Wo rivers, whose name was Wu-chih-ch’i.

This god was expert in formal rhetoric and could distinguish between the shallows and deeps o f the Yangtze and Huai rivers and between the proximity and distances o f plains and lowlands. He was shaped like an ape with an upturned snout and a high forehead. He

Figure 8 (opposite). The unsuccessful attempt by the First Ch’in Emperor (r. 2 2 1 -2 1 0 B.C.) to recover one of the nine sacred cauldrons of Yu from the river; a dragon’s head appears in the tilting cauldron. Funerary stone bas-relief, Wu Liang Shrine, Chia-hsiang county, Shantung province, a .d . 151. From Feng and Feng, Research on Stone Carving (1821) 1934, chap. 4.

152 ~ Chinese Mythology

had a green body and a white head with metallic eyes and snowy teeth. His neck stretched out for a hundred feet. He was stronger than nine elephants. He lunged out with his fists and leapt about in a sudden frenzied rush, so swift and fast that now you’d hear him, now you wouldn’t, now you’d see him, now you wouldn’t.

Yii handed him over to T ’ung-lu but he could not control him. He handed him over to Wu-mu-yu but he could not control him. He handed him over to Keng-ch’en and he was able to control him. The Ch’ih-p’i and Huan-hu, wood demons and water sprites, mountain trolls and rock monsters rushed forth screaming in a circling mass numbering several thousand. Keng-ch’en chased him with his spear. Then he chained his neck with a huge rope.and threaded a metal bell through his nostril, and he banished him to the south o f Huai River to the foothills o f Tortoise Mountain. So Huai River was able to flow peacefully out to sea for ever more. Afterward, people made images o f the monster, and they no longer suffered from the stormy waves o f Huai River. (T ’ai-p’ing kuang chi, L i T'ang, citing Jung-mo hsien t’an,

JM W H 467.2b)

Yii Measures the Whole World

A theme o f special significance in the Chinese mythological tradi­ tion concerns mythological geography. Some early accounts o f Yu’s divinely inspired flood control work throughout the area first demar­ cated by him as the Nine Provinces constitute the b e g in n in g o f Chinese geography. The term, geography, in its basic meaning o f the delineation o f the land or the earth, may be said to form the substance o f such accounts. The earliest texts on water control and on cartography occur in two chapters o f Kuan Tzu, dating from the seventh century B.C., “A Consideration o f Land” and “Maps,” besides the later texts o iT h e Clas­ sic o f History, Chou Ritual, and Intrigues of the Warring Sates (Rickett 1965, 72-82, 232-35).

The best account o f this pseudo-geography occurs in a long narra­ tive in The Classic of History, in the chapter entitled ‘T h e Tribute o f Yu,” and a similar one occurs in Mencius (^.i i ) and elsewhere. Some o f the place-names in these texts are recognizable, such as the Yangtze, Huai, Han, and Yellow rivers, as well as the names o f some early states and principalities. But the majority belong to mythology rather than to the science o f geography based on a real knowledge o f the world. The re­ ports o f Han travelers and post-Han surveyors were the first to provide

Myths of Yu the Great ~ 153

proper information based on firsthand accounts. A fine example is chap­ ters 61 and 96 o f Pan Ku’s History of the Han (first century a .d .), which record diplomatic and military expeditions to the western regions o f Central Asia (Loewe and Hulsewe 1979). For the rest, as Karlgren force­ fully emphasizes, the attempts by Han and post-Han commentators on the late Chou classics to identify mythological place-names, especially in the pseudo-geographical accounts o f Yii controlling the flood, are quite “void o f value” (1946, 208). Nevertheless, the chapter entitled “The Tribute o f Yu” and other related texts on the flood myth are o f major importance in terms o f mythological material. It may be argued, moreover, that these major myths stimulated a curiosity and intellec­ tual interest in formulating a more scientific foundation for the science o f geography in later times.

Apart from ‘T h e Tribute o f Yu” and the account in Mencius, a mythic narrative o f Yii the World Measurer appears in Huai-nan Tzu, a m otif that has its Vedic parallel in Vishnu (Puhvel 1987,183). This val­ uable account constitutes a prototype o f mathematical geography. In classical Chinese mythology the earth was conceived o f as a square, sea­ girt plane vaulted by the sky (and, in some accounts, with the Yellow Springs below). In the second-century B.C. Huai-nan Tzu account, Yii orders two officers, whose names signify ‘building’ and ‘design’, to mea­ sure the longitude and latitude o f the square earth and to fathom all stretches o f water. The measurements are different in various versions o f the myth (for a resume see Mathieu 1989,108 nn. 1-2).

Yii then commanded T ’ai Chang to pace out from the east pole as far as the west pole, making 233,500 leagues and 75 paces. He com­ manded Shu Hai to pace out from the north pole as far as the south pole, making 233,500 leagues and 75 paces. O f all the vast waters to the deepest abyss from twenty-four feet and higher he fathomed 233,559 stretches of water. Yii then dammed the vast waters with self- renewing earth, and these banks became famous mountains. (Huai- nan Tzu, Chui hsing, SPPY 4.2a)

Yu Casts the Nine Cauldrons

Another significant myth in the Yu cycle is the forging o f the nine metal cauldrons. There are several versions as to the identity o f the divine forger, but the Yii version is more generally accepted as ortho­ dox. In Mo Tzu, however, it is Yu’s son K ’ai, also known as Ch’i, who

154 ~ Chinese Mythology

is said to play that role in conjunction with one Fei Lien (Yi-pao Mei 1929,212-13). The reading presented in this section is from the Chronicle ofTso, dating from the fourth century B.C., as with the Mo Tzu. Its nar­ rative contains several motifs: Yu as the divine smith, the divine wis­ dom o f Yii in teaching humans how to distinguish between harmful and benign gods, the symbolic value o f representing images o f gods on the nine cauldrons, the number nine, which reflects the celestial sphere, and the moral value o f the cauldrons in gauging the rise or decline o f sovereign power. This moral worth o f the cauldrons is expressed meta­ phorically through their weight. For example, in the third-century B.C. text Intrigues of the Warring States, it was stated that the victorious Chou people waged their war against the Shang, conscious o f the Chou’s moral supremacy; it was also stated that the Chou “captured the nine cauldrons [from the Shang] and it took ninety thousand men to haul one cauldron” (Crump 1970, 38). Conversely, when in turn the Chou were overthrown by the Ch’in, it was stated that “in the nineteenth year o f King Nan o f the Chou, King Chao o f the Ch’in captured the nine cauldrons. Then one cauldron flew into Ssu River and the other eight went into the territory o f Ch’in” (Historical Records, official commentary on the “Basic Annals o f the Ch’in,” SPPY 5.26b). Thus the divinely forged cauldrons o f Yii passed from dynasty to dynasty, becoming heavy with moral virtue and light with moral turpitude. K. C. Chang has observed that the nine cauldrons “became a symbol o f legitimate dynastic rule,” being “symbols o f wealth . . . symbols o f ritual. . . and symbols o f the control o f metal” (1983, 95-97). The function o f Yii as the divine smith links him to Nii Kua when she repaired the cosmos and to Ch’ih Yu, inventor o f metal and weapons.

The myth o f Yii and the nine sacred cauldrons is also connected with another important motif, Yu’s role as dynastic founder o f the Hsia, and this brings him into the nexus o f founding myths. (The Yti cycle has been identified by Eberhard with the Yueh culture o f South­ east China [1968,348-62].) This in turn is linked to Yii’s prominent role in the important myth o f the Golden Age, when first Yao, then Shun, and lastly Yii ruled the world with suprahuman wisdom. Unlike the Golden Age o f Greek myth, when humans enjoyed a long life free from disease, toil, and old age, the Chinese myth presents a utopia o f peace and good government, when rulers were benevolent and just.

Myths o f Yti the Great ~ 155

[The prince o f Ch’u asked Wang-sun Man of the royal state o f Chou about the size and weight o f the nine cauldrons. Wang-sun Man gave this reply.]

Long ago, when the aspect o f the Hsia showed virtue, people from distant areas made illustrations o f objects and creatures and made tributary offerings of metal to the nine regional stewards. So he [Yii] forged cauldrons in the image o f these creatures. He took precaution­ ary measures against all living things on behalf of the people, to make sure that they knew which were the malign spirits. Therefore, when the people went on rivers or entered marshes, or went on mountains or into forests, they never came across adverse beings; neither goblins or trolls could ever run into them. They also enjoyed the grace o f harmony between Heaven above and earth below, and received blessings from Heaven. Chieh [of the Hsia] was wicked, so the cauldrons and their sovereign power passed over to the Shang for six centuries. Chou [last ruler of the Shang] was a harsh despot, so the cauldrons passed over to the Chou. If the virtue o f the ruling house is pure and true, even though the cauldrons might be small, they weigh heavily. If the ruling house is perverted and prone to instability, even though the cauldrons may be large, they are light­ weight. Heaven protects pure virtue and keeps it safe. (Tso chuan, Hsuan kung Third Year, SPPY 2i.8b-9a)

Yii collected metal from the nine regional stewards and forged the nine cauldrons. (Han shu, Chiao ssu chih, SPPY 25.1.21a)

Yii and the T’u-shan Girl

Although the main stories o f the myth o f Yii and the flood are w rit­ ten in the heroic mode and accentuate the labors o f the demigod and his selfless devotion to duty, an account from the earliest phase o f the myth­ ological tradition portrays the hero’s lyrical and romantic character. This does not mean that the rougher, more abrupt, and brutal mythic elements are absent, as the third reading shows.

The first reading, from the fourth-century B.C. text “Questions o f Heaven,” is one o f the few mythic narratives that tell o f physical desire. Its final wording is, however, garbled, and the translation must be con­ sidered as only a tentative rendition o f its obscurities. The second read­ ing, from about the first century a .d ., provides an explanation for Yu’s romantic interlude: that time and youth and virility were running out.

156 ~ Chinese Mythology

The account establishes that the mating was for dynastic rather than passionate considerations. This account moves from the mythic mode o f “Questions o f Heaven” to a legendary one. The third reading bears all the hallmarks o f a mythological account, referring as it does to meta­ morphosis, bestiovestism, divine error, and miraculous birth. The motifs and the textual source were discussed in full in chapter 5.

Yu labored with all his strength. He came down and gazed at the earth below. How did he get the T ’u-shan girl and lie with her in T ’ai- sang? His consort became his mate and her body gave forth a child. Why did they hunger for the same food, when they had satisfied their hunger for the food o f love at dawn? (Ch’u Tz’u, Tien wen, SPTK 3.i3b-i4a)

B y the age o f thirty, Yu still had not married. On his travels he reached T’u-shan. Because he was afraid that time was running out, he abandoned his vow. So he announced, “If I am to marry, let there be an omen.” Then a white fox with nine tails came in front o f Yii. Yii said, “White is the color of my robes, and the nine tails are the emblem o f a ruler. A song o f the T ’u-shan goes:

The white fox loiters and prowls, His nine tails are firm and bushy. M y home is welcoming, The guest who comes will be king. His family will succeed, his house will succeed. I will make you wealthy, For this is a time when Heaven favors a man. We should go ahead right now!

“Now I understand!” exclaimed Yii. So Yii married into the T ’u- shan, and he called his bride Nu-chiao. (Wu Yueh ch’un-ch’iu, Yueh wang Wu Yu wai chuan, SPPY 6.2b)

When Yii was controlling the floodwaters and was making a passage through Mount Huan-yuan, he changed into a bear. He spoke to the T ’u-shan girl: “If you want to give me some food, when you hear the sound of a drumbeat, come to me.” But Yii leaped on a stone and by mistake drummed on it. The T ’u-shan girl came forward, but when she saw Yii in the guise o f a bear she was ashamed and fled. She reached the foothills o f Mount Sung-kao, when she turned into a stone and bore Ch’i in her womb. Yii said, “Give me back my son!” The stone then split open on its north flank and Ch’i was born. (Yen

Myths of YU the Great — 157

Shih-ku’s commentary on Han shu, Wu-ti chi, referring to a nonextant passage in Huai-nan Tzu, SPPY 6.i7b-i8a)

The Deities Help Yii to Control the Flood

The transformation o f myth to legend and the use o f mythic mate­ rial for literary purposes are most clearly evident in the late narratives o f the myth o f Yii and the flood. In the transition from myth to litera­ ture, the eternal verities o f myth become the impermanent values o f fiction, poetry, and drama as style and value alter from age to age. The most interesting contribution to this aspect o f the literary use o f myth is Eric Gould’s Mythical Intention in Modern Literature (1981), which ex­ plores motifs borrowed from the Western classical tradition o f myth in modern works such as the novels o f James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence and the poetry o f T. S. Eliot. In the Chinese tradition this transmuta­ tion from myth to literature is exemplified by the account o f the myth o f Yii and the flood in Researches into Lost Records, dating from the fourth century a .d . It is particularly manifest when compared with similar mythic narratives o f a much earlier period, some eight centuries earlier in the case o f “Questions o f Heaven,” or three centuries earlier in the case o f chapter 18 o f The Classic of Mountains and Seas, which were the first readings in this chapter. In the later, literary miscellany o f Researches, several legendary features are added to the basic myth: a dark cavern, a hoglike beast, a bright pearl, a green dog, metamorphoses from ani­ mal to human shape, a multiplicity o f minor deities, a jade tablet and a river chart, divine genealogy, and so forth. Moreover, when compared with the earlier texts, this later account reveals a number o f sophisti­ cated stylistic features: an integrated, consecutive narration, color mo­ tifs, similes, dialog, besides magic and precious substances. The shift in Yu’s role from demigod to human hero, aided by the gods rather than acting as a god, marks the transmutation from myth to literature.

Another such account that is notable for its literariness rather than its mythological form is the narrative o f Tu Kuang-t’ing (a .d . 850-933). Tu’s account in A Record of Immortals, Compiled in Yung-ch’eng reveals sev­ eral elements in the evolution from classical myth to literary fiction. Tu’s mythopoeic inventions include the dominant role o f a goddess named Jasper Lady, her miraculous birth, her five metamorphoses, Yu’s inability to change shape, the five sorcery arts o f the goddess, the arcane text charting river courses, and various Taoistic motifs. The most im­ portant element is the shift in emphasis to Yu’s subservient role toward

158 ~ Chinese Mythology

the goddess compared with his dominant, masculine role in classical narratives. This marks the evolution from myth to religion, as new leg­ endary personages from the Taoist pantheon color the account with quasi-religious terminology.

Yii forged the Mountain o f Dragon Pass and then called it Dragon Gate. He came to an empty cavern several tens o f leagues deep and so pitch black that he could go no further. So Yii carried a fire torch on his back and went forward. There was a beast that looked like a hog, and it held a night-shining pearl in its mouth, the light of which was like a torch. There was also a green dog, which barked and ran on ahead. Yii reckoned that he must have gone ten leagues, and he lost track of whether it was day or night. Suddenly he was aware that it was gradually getting a bit lighter, and he noticed the hog and the dog coming toward him, and as they did, they changed into human form, both wearing dark clothes. He also noticed a god with a ser­ pent’s body and a human face, and so Yu had a talk with him. The god at once showed Yii a chart o f the Eight Trigrams spread out on top o f a bench o f gold. And there were eight gods in attendance on all sides. Yii said, “Hua Hsu gave birth to a sage-child—was it you?” He answered, “Hua Hsu is the goddess o f the Nine Rivers and she gave birth to me.” Then he reached for a jade tablet and handed it to Yii. It was one foot, two inches long, and it contained all the num­ bers o f the twelve hours, which would enable Yii to make calcula­ tions o f Heaven and earth. As soon as Yu held the tablet, he brought order to the flooded land. The god with the serpent’s body was [Fu] Hsi the August. (Shih yi chi, HWTS 2.2b~3a)

Lady Yun-hua was the twenty-third daughter o f the Queen Mother and the younger sister o f Princess T ’ai-chen. Her personal name was Yao-chi, Jasper Lady. She had been granted the techniques o f causing whirlwinds, fusing substances, creating myriad visions, refining divine beings, and flying away in different shapes and forms. She happened to be roaming away from the area o f the east sea and was passing by the river when Mount Wu came into view. Its peaks and cliffs jutted out sharply, and wooded ravines were darkly beautiful, with gigantic rocks like an earthly altar. She lingered there for a long while. At that time, Yii the Great was controlling the floods and was living near the mountain. A great wind suddenly came, making the cliffs shudder and the valleys collapse. There was nothing Yii could do to prevent it. Then he came upon the lady, and bowing to her, he

Myths of Yu the Great — 159

asked her for her help. She at once commanded her handmaid to bring Yii the Book of Rules and Orders for demons and spirits. Then she ordered her spirits K’uang-chang, Yii-yii, Huang-mo, Ta-yi, Keng-ch’en, T’ung Lu, and others, to help Yii to hew rocks in order to clear the spurting waves and to dredge blocked riverbeds to con­ duct water through the narrow places, so as to ease the flow o f water. Yii bowed to them and thanked them for their help.

Yii wished to visit the lady on the summit o f the soaring pinnacle, but before he could look around, she had turned into a rock. Now she suddenly flies around, dispersing into light cloud, which grows dense, then stops, and condenses into an evening shower. Now she turns into a roving dragon, now into a soaring crane. She takes on a thousand appearances, ten thousand shapes. It was impossible to ap­ proach her. Yii suspected she might be a treacherous phantasm, not a true immortal, so he asked T ’ung Lu about her. Lii said, “ . . . Lady Yun-hua is the daughter o f the Mother o f M etal.. . . Hers is not a body that dwelt naturally in the womb, but it is the vapor from the pale shadow o f West Hua. . . . When she comes among humans, she turns into a human, among animals she turns into an animal. Surely she is not limited to the shape o f clouds or rain, or a dragon, or a stork, or a flying swan, or wheeling phoenix?” Yii thought what he said was right.

Later on, when he did go to visit her, he suddenly saw a cloudy tower and a jade terrace, a jasper palace with jade turrets, which looked magnificent. Standing on guard were spirit officers whose names were unknown: lions held the gates, horses of Heaven made way, vicious dragons, lightning animals, eight guards stood by the palace pavilions. The lady was sitting quietly on the jasper terrace. Yii bowed his head very low and asked about the Way.. . . Then the lady ordered her handmaid, Ling Jung-hua, to bring out a small cinnabar-red jade box. She opened it and lifted up a priceless docu­ ment in a distinguished script and presented it to Yii. Yu bowed low as he accepted it and then he left. He also gained the help o f Keng- ch’en and Yii-yii, so that in the end he managed to direct the waves and contain the rivers, and he succeeded in accomplishing his task. He made fast the Five Peaks and demarcated the Nine Provinces. Heaven therefore conferred on him the Black Jade insignia and made him the True Man of the Purple Palace. (T ’ai-p’ing kuang chi, citing Yung-ch’eng chi hsien lit, JMWH 56.347-49)