26 Pr e - q i n t i m e s
Although once again a Greek fragment offers us no context, the juxtaposition
of some central female figure (the moon) to her subordinate women (the stars
around her) is not unlike the situation in “Little Stars.” That such women could be
seen to be “in the ruler’s service” is also apparent from “Cai fan” (Gathering the
White Artemesia [Mao no. 13]):C 1. 9
Gathering the White Artemesia 采蘩 (căi fán)Where do I gather the white artemesia? 于以采蘩 (yú yĭ căi fán)
2 By the pond, by the islet. 于沼于沚 (yú zhăo yú zhĭ )
Whether do I use it? 于以用之 (yú yĭ yòng zhī )
4 In the service of the ruler. 公侯之事 (gōng hóu zhī shì)
Where do I gather the white artemesia? 于以采蘩 (yú yĭ căi fán)
6 All down the dale. 于澗之中 (yú jiàn zhī zhōng)
Whether do I use it? 于以用之 (yú yĭ yòng zhī)
8 In the palace of the ruler. 公侯之宮 (gōng hóu zhī gōng)The glossy sheen of my hair knot, 被之僮僮 (bì zhī tong tong)
10 Morning and night I am in the ruler’s service. 夙夜在公 (sú yè zài gōng)
In disheveled profusion the hair in my knot, 被之祁祁 (bì zhī qí qí)
12 As I hurriedly return. 薄言還歸 (bó yán huán guī)
[MSZJ 1.10b–11a]Artemesia, varieties of which are also known as wormwood or southernwood, is a
decorative, aromatic plant (used for wreaths in modern times). The white variant
was used both in sacrifices and as food for silkworms, leading traditional commen-
tators to read this poem as either the plaint of a palace woman who is preparing a
sacrifice for her ruler’s ancestors or a peasant girl’s gathering the plant as part of
the silk-making process. Since the bi that is referred to twice in the last stanza was
a kind of hairpiece woven into the hair atop the head for certain rituals, my reading
will follow the former interpretation.
The palace woman’s task is onerous, taking her to various out-of-the-way places.
She asks where she will find the plant, not literally to check herself, but to heighten
her suffering for her audience. Although her journey from the nearby ponds to
the river islets and then up the small valley of a tributary may not seem too ardu-
ous, the final stanza reveals the toll it takes. Portrayed synecdocically through her
hair knot, the woman works day and night and ends up as exhausted as her fallen
coiffure suggests. Her motion is suggested in the first two stanzas by the staccato
rhyme scheme: xaxa / xbxb. The doubled rhyme of the first couplet of the final
stanza (ccdd) slackens the pace of the song and allows the persona a moment to
reflect on her disheveled coiffure as she rushes to return.
The gathering of white artemesia was clearly women’s work, as we read in the
final stanza of “Chu ju” (Send Out the Chariots [Mao no. 168]), which depicts the