anC i e n t-s t y l e Sh i P oe t ry : C on t i nuat ion anD C Hang e s 241
notes
- For further reading on Chen Zi’ang’s life and his contributions to the development of Tang
poetry, see Stephen Owen, Poetry of the Early T’ang (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
1977), 151–223.
- For a history of interpretations of the title and the overall significance of these poems, see
Tim W. Chan, “The ‘Ganyu’ of Chen Zi’ang: Questions on the Formation of a Poetic Genre,” T’oung
Pao 87, nos. 1–3 (2001): 14–42.
- An alternative version of this line substitutes meng (muddled) in line 7 with xiang (images),
changing the verse to “The sense of the Obscure is not apprehended in images.”
- For a translation of this section of the Book of Changes, where the dragon figures prominently,
see Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes, trans., The I Ching, or Book of Changes, Bollingen Series
19 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1950), 3–10, 369–384.
- In my translation, I have, in order to avoid redundancy, not rendered the word xing, leaving
it implicit in the word “hinder.”
- The reduplicative binome youyou has been associated with at least two distinct meanings
since as early as the Shijing: the feeling of mournfulness, and the spatial property of great breadth
or distance. By the time of the High Tang, as we see here, the two meanings were frequently
combined.
- Typically in this category, known as “climbing high” (deng gao), the poet ascends to a high
place, atop either a mountain or a tower, looks out on the landscape, and, stimulated by the sight
of an onward-flowing river, contemplates the passage of time and his own ephemerality.
- In this couplet, where the mythical and terrestrial realms continue to merge, the term “Five
Mountains” seems to refer to both the Five Sacred Mountains of China and the five mythical Dao-
ist mountains of the immortals.
- Silver River is the Chinese name for the Milky Way.
- Incense Burner Waterfall is so named because of the cloudlike mist that rises above it.
- “Master Xie” refers to the poet Xie Lingyun, who mentions the Stone Mirror—a round stone
on the side of one of the mountains that is so smooth it reflects the light—in his poem “Entering
Pengli Lake.”
- The term “reverted cinnabar” refers to the ultimate product of the completed cycle of the
Daoist alchemical transformation of cinnabar into an elixir of immortality.
- The fixed expression “lute-heart plays all three chords,” like “reverted cinnabar,” derives
from the vocabulary of Daoist alchemical practices. In this context, a “lute-heart” is one that has
attained harmony, and the “three chords” refer to the central, controlling regions (known as “cin-
nabar fields”) of each of the three divisions of the body: upper, middle, and lower. These divisions
correspond to the vertical axis of the world and, within the body, are the respective lodging points
of “essence” (jing), “breath” (qi), and “spirit” (shen). The point of this line, then, is that the poet has
achieved a perfectly harmonious state both within himself and in relation to the Dao.
- Lu Ao is a legendary figure who was sent by the First Emperor to seek immortals, never
to return. This line alludes to a story about him in the Huainanzi, where, after having wandered
beyond this world to almost every corner of the universe—and being convinced that he was alone
in having done so—he meets someone who has voyaged even more extensively than he has. As if
to prove the point, the stranger declines to tarry any longer, claiming a previous engagement with
(we assume) an otherwise unidentified wandering immortal named Han Man, somewhere beyond
the Nine Regions (which themselves are located beyond the Nine Heavens!). By the Middle Tang,
“Han Man journey” came to mean a journey to far-away places.
- Lu Mountain, which roughly translates as “Hut Mountain,” is known for its nine folds (with
nine being an auspicious number) and supposedly derives its name from the presence, during the
Zhou dynasty, of seven brothers who built a hut there and practiced the Daoist arts, eventually
becoming transcendents. The mountain was also the site, during the Eastern Jin dynasty, of the
monastery founded by the famous Buddhist monk Huiyuan (334–416).
