not just concrete delineations, but transitional spaces that can be
spiritual as well. For example, a typical home in northern China will
have a wall around it. At the front door, there might be an inset wall
so that nothing can proceed directly into the home. The area around
the front doorway is dealt with in a very cautious and ritualistic man-
ner. The reason for this is that the protected space within the home is
relatively yangûin contrast to the polluted yin陰of the exterior
world. Anything could be creeping around out there. One must be not
only physically on one’s guard for what may enter, but spiritually as
well. As China began thinking of itself as something larger than a
patchwork of individual states, in the post-feudal Qin and early Han
dynasties, it began to view itself as a large home and, therefore, took
measures to consolidate a huge wall around itself, the Great Wall, for
the same reasons that walls are built around houses. But walls them-
selves elicit an element of curiosity on the part of restless spirits such
as Zheng Chouyu: the wayfarer who still pines for his homeland, as
Yang Mu describes him (Yang 1974: 4–45):
The frontier earth in autumn halved
under a common failing sun
On these abutting lands stand
chrysanthemums, silent and sallow
And he came a long way to
soberly down his drink
Beyond the window is alien land
What he wouldn’t give to cross
over, merely a step and he’d
be longing
That lovely longing for home,
only a glance of the hand away
Maybe he should just get drunk,
that would be good enough
(He gladly lets the taxman
take his due)
Or, maybe, he should belt
out a tune
And not just stand there like
those funereal mums
Just verging on the borderline,
standing
(Zheng [1965] 2003: 198–199)
42 Christopher Lupke
ý天的疆\, 分ù在sQ夕b
處, Ø$
~ 打遠道*, 醒著 酒
F外E異p, s即鄉愁
MN的鄉愁, §或者, ¤ 醉cÉ|
( E 2的 P)或者,!ñ聲吐
#)祇E着¥$
祇憑øù著