Appendices and Endnotes [Hung Sheng 1654-1704] by William Dolby

Author:William Dolby [Dolby, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781539977278
Publisher: Straightback Publishing
Published: 2019-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

440ch’iung-chiang 瓊漿, Chaceldony Syrup/Juice/Nectar, a term for “fine wine”, “immortals’ wine”.

441A-mu 阿母, “Our Mother”, i.e. Wang-mu 王母, Royal Mother, i.e. Hsi Wang-mu 西王母, Royal Mother of the West, a goddess, sometimes referred to as A-mu 阿母, mother, nanny. Early descriptions show her as a composite, ferocious being. Anon. (early 3rd century BC or earlier) Son-of-Heaven King Solemn (Mu t’ien-tzu chuan 穆天子傳) says: “On the auspicious day chia-tzu, the Son of Heaven was guest at Royal Mother of the West’s.” A note to this says: “Royal Mother of the West was like a human, with tiger’s teeth, dishevelled hair, and a jade coronet, and she was skilled at whistling.”

K’ung Ch’iu 孔丘 (551 BC-479 BC), (attrib. ed.?), Bamboo annals (Chu-shu chi-nien 竹書紀年), “Mu-wang 17 nien”, says: “King Solemn journeyed far to the K’un-lun Hills (K’un-lun-ch’iu 崑崙丘) and met Royal Mother of the West.”

Anon. (1st millennium BC), Mountains-and-seas classic (Shan-hai ching 山海經), makes several mentions of her:

Jade Mountain is the place where Royal Mother of the West dwells. Royal Mother of the West looks like a human-being, has a leopard’s tail and a tiger’s teeth, and roars mightily. She lets her hair hang loose and dishevelled, and wears a jade coronet. She’s in charge of the calendar of Natural disasters, and of the vital-energies of the Five Destructions, executions.

Royal Mother of the West lolls at a small table, and wears a jade head-dress on her head. To her south, there are Three Green Birds, which fetch food for her.

Archer Yi besought some Not-dying Medicine from Royal Mother of the West, and his wife, Constant-charmeuse, stole it and fled to the moon, seeking refuge on the moon, she becoming the Toad and Moon Nymph.

The Yin dynasty world-ruler Great Wu sent Wang Meng to gather medicinal herbs from where Royal Mother of the West was.

There’s a very full and fascinating account of this goddess given in Suzanne E. Cahill, Transcendence and divine passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Mediaeval China, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Chapters 5 and 6 concentrate on the T’ang dynasty.

We note that Anon. (Chou and early Han dynasty), Close exegeses (Erh-ya 爾雅), “Shih-ti”, mentions Hsi Wang-mu as the name of a country: “Ku-chu 觚竹, Pei-hu 北戶, Hsi Wang-mu and Jih-hsia 日下 are called the Four Wild Countries (Ssu-huang 四荒).” A note to it says: “Hsi Wang-mu was in the west.”

442Hua-mao 花帽, Flower Hat, name for some kind of headgear, possibly decked with flowers or gaudily coloured.

443cheng 箏: cheng-zither, cheng-dulcimer, Name of a musical instrument. Its invention is traditionally attributed to Meng T’ien 蒙恬 (?BC - 220 BC), a man from Ch’i 齊, who was a mighty general serving under the First Emperor of Ch’in. Among other deeds, he overawed the “barbarian” Hsiung-nu 匈奴 nation. He’s also credited with the invention of the writing-brush.

The cheng is a plucked half-tube zither-like instrument with movable bridges, and smaller and higher-pitched than the se 瑟-zither or the ch’in 琴-zither/-dulcimer. In its origins it’s strongly associated with the region of Ch’in 秦, around modern

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