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Fire and rain: a look at Shen Nung the Divine Farmer) and his ties with Yen Ti (the 1.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Robert G. Henricks
Robert G. Henricks
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
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Extract

Up to this point I have attempted to show how Shen Nung was portrayed in late Warring States and early Han texts. I have also reviewed what we know about Nung (or Chu) and Lieh Shan shih, Keng-fu (Plough Father), and T'ien-tsu (Field Ancestor), since it may be one or all four of these figures that comes to be known as Shen Nung.

We can argue nothing for certain on this, and certainly T'ien-tsu in the Shih, was, we assume, a god of the Chou. But that point aside, there seems to be good reason to think that Shen Nung was originally a farming god of the Shang people. He is the hero who invented the plough, and the god to whom they turned when they needed rain. Ultimately, this may have been Hsieh, the first-born of the Shang people, known to us in our texts as Shu-chün or Yi-chün. That Shen Nung would become prominent only in texts that date from the late Chou should be no surprise; we should expect him to be overshadowed in early Chou times by their hero Hou Chi.

It is important to keep in mind as we proceed that in the materials we have examined so far, we have seen repeated references to ‘fire’ and ‘rain’ and ‘drought’. Ritual ways of producing rainfall and combating the drought could involve fire (yen-huo, in Shih, 211); they might also involve ‘invocations’, charging the drought demon to ‘Go to the north!’ (Shan-hai ching).

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , February 1998 , pp. 102 - 124
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1998

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References

2 i.e. a day that begins with day one or day two in the sequence of the ‘ten celestial stems’.

3 Kuo-han, Ma, Yü-han shan-fang, vol. 3, 2577Google Scholar. The six titles are a Shen Nung shu of 20 p'ien; a Shen Nung ping-fa , 1 p'ien; a Shen Nung ta-yu wu-hsing , 27 chüan; a Shen Nung chiao-t'ien hsiang-t'u keng-chung 14 chüan; a Shen Nung Huang-ti shih-chin , 7 chüan; and a Shen Nung tsa-tzu chi-tao , 23 chüan.

4 Chieh-kang's, Kuwords see his ‘Wu-te chung shih shuo-hsia-ti cheng-chih ho li-shih’, in Ku-shih pien, vol. 5, 562.Google Scholar

5 Meng-chia, Ch'en, ‘Shang-tai ti shen-hua yü wu-shu’, Yenching hsüeh-pao, xx, 1936, 485–576Google Scholar; Schafer, Edward H., ‘Ritual exposure in ancient China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, XIV, 1951, 130–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Hsi-kui, Ch'iu, Shuo pu-tz'u ti fen-wu-wang yü tso t'u-lung ’, 216–26 in his Ku-wen-tzu lun-chi (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1992).Google Scholar

6 Schafer notes that such things were still being done in the T'ang. Chou Ch'ih, writing in 814, notes ‘exposing shamans in the sun’as one of three things to be done when praying for rain.

7 Ch'iu Hsi-kui seems to assume throughout that the shamans were sacrificed. Ch'en Meng-chia, on the other hand, felt that such rites were carried out to move the gods to compassion.

8 Ch'en Meng-chia, ‘Shang-tai ti wu-shu’, 564. Samples from the oracle bones areand; from the bronzesand. These are cited in Chia-ku chin-wen tzu-tien (Ch'eng-tu: Pa-shu , 1993), 757.Google Scholar

9 Wang Tao has recently shown that ch'ih is used as a colour in the oracle bones but only in a very limited way; it refers to the colour of horses. See Tao, Wang, ‘Colour symbolism in Late Shang China’, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1993, 71–8.Google Scholar

10 Ch'iu Hsi-kui argues that the character fenactually derives from a graph in the bones which is written with ‘yellow’ (huang ) on top and ‘fire’ (huo ) on the bottom. This he reads as a pictograph of a wang: it is a malnourished person with bloated stomach standing on fire. (Hsi-kui, Ch'iu, ‘Shuo pu-tz'u ti fen wu-wang,’ 216–24.Google Scholar)

11 For his commentary, see Shih-san ching chu-shu , vol. 2, 1811.2 (Peking: Chung hua shu-chü, 1979.)Google Scholar

12 See Graham, A. C., ‘The Nung-chia‘School of the Tillers’ and the origins of peasant Utopianism in China’, BSOAS, 42/1, 1979, 96.Google Scholar

13 Mo-tzu, ch. 49, 90, 11. 40–54 in the Harvard- Yenching Index edition of Mo-tzu.

14 Graham, , ‘The Nung-chia’, 69.Google Scholar

15 As cited in Su's, MaYi-shih , 4.1b (Taipei: Kuang-wen shu-chü, 1969)Google Scholar. In his article on the ‘I Chou shu’ in Michael, Loewe's (ed.) Early Chinese texts: a bibliographical guide (Berkeley: SSEC and IEAS, 1993)Google Scholar, Edward Shaughnessy dates composition of the earliest parts of this book to the late fourth or early third century B. C. (p. 230). I have not, however, located this passage in the SPPY version of the I Chou shu.

16 As cited in Ma Su's Yi-shih, 4.4b.

17 For the text, see p. 45 in the Harvard-Yenching Concordance. For another translation see Wilhelm, Richard (translated into English by Baynes, Cary F.), The I Ching or Book of Changes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), 330–31Google Scholar. Shaughnessy (‘I ching’ in Loewe, , ed., Early Chinese texts, 221Google Scholar) suggests that the commentaries to the Yi ching ‘attained their present form in the mid third to the early second century B. C.’.

18 As David Hawkes has pointed out, ‘so-and-so shih’ often refers to the head or chief of the ‘so-and-so’ clan (Hawkes, David, ‘The heirs of Gao-yang’, T'oung Pao, LXIX, 1/3, 1983, 5.Google Scholar). Shih can also stand for the clan itself, however; thus ‘Pao Hsi shih’ could be read as ‘the Pao Hsis’ or ‘the Pao Hsi clan’. The decision to translate as an individual or the whole group must be made in a case by case way. Thus when we read in the Ti-wang shih-chi (as cited in Ma Su's Yi-shih 4.5b) that ‘Yen Ti, Shen Nung shih, was on the throne for 12 years, and when he died, he was buried in Ch'ang-sha,’ and the text continues ‘[His line continued for] eight generations altogether. [Succeeding him were] Ti Ch'eng, Ti Lin, Ti Ming, Ti Chih, Ti Lai, Ti Ai, and Ti Yü-wang’ Shen Nung shih clearly means the one person Shen Nung. But when the Shih-tzu (cited in the same source on the same page) has ‘Shen Nung shih ruled the land for 70 generations. Is it not that each generation was worthy?! Even though there was a change in the one who looked after the people’, the shih must refer to the clan. In this article, I leave the suffix shih untranslated when it is clear there is a single person in mind; e.g. ‘Shen Nung shih’ is normally ‘Shen Nung’. I make one exception: I refer to Lieh Shan shihas ‘Lieh Shan shih’, since he is hardly ever called simgeply ‘Lieh Shan’.

19 Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu 6.2a in the SPPY edition. Similar words are found in the ‘Yüeh-ling’ chapter of the Li-chi (Li-chi hsün-tsuan , 6.20b, SPPY ed.). Kao Yu (fl. A. D. 200) further comments (6.2ab): ‘In former times Yen Ti was Shen Nung. He was able to grow the wonderful grains, so they turned him into a god they called “Divine Farmer” (Shen Nung). Later generations have accordingly named the official [in charge of these things] the “Divine Farmer”. It is his task to tour and inspect the dikes and fields and repair them. At this time, to undertake great affairs, impedes and harms the business of farming. So this is forbidden, saying that [if you do] you will be punished by a natural disaster.’

20 Though parts of the Kuan-tzu may date from earlier times, W. Allyn Rickett (in Loewe, ed., Early Chinese texts, 248) says that chs. 63–7 and 68–86 are ‘clearly of late origin, the latter dating no earlier than the middle of the second century B. C.’

21 As cited in Ma Su's Yi-shih, 4.1b. The Hsin-yü is attributed to Lu Chia, whose dates were c. 228–c. 140 B. C.

22 Huai-nan tzu, 1.5b (SPPY ed.)

23 ibid., 9.1b.

24 ibid., 19.1ab.

25 The language here is curiously reminiscent of Wang Yi's commentary to the ‘T'ien-wen’ in the Ch'u-tz'u at the mention of Nü Kua. There (3.15a, p. 171) he says: ‘Legends have it that Nü Kua had a human head with a reptilian body, and that she transformed seventy times in one day.’ Page references in this article to the Ch'u-tz'u are to the Taiwan edition (Chung-wen Press, 1979) of Takeji Sadao'sSoji Sakuin-Ch'u-tz'u so-yin: Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu .

26 As cited in Ma Su's Yi-shih, 4.1b. Date is uncertain.

27 Which Sivin, Nathan dates to the ‘late first or second century A. D.’ See his Traditional medicine in contemporary China (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, 1987), 179–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Mencius, 3A.4 (p. 20 in Meng-tzu yin-te, Harvard Yenching Index Series).

29 Shang-shu K'ung-chuan 12.7b (SPPY ed.). The ‘Lü-hsing’ appears to date from the reign of King Mu (956–18 B. C.). For the latest word on probable dates for the documents in the Shu, see Shaughnessy, Edward, ‘Shang shu(Shu ching)’, in Loewe, (ed.), Early Chinese texts, 377–80.Google Scholar

30 The standard text on the birth of Hou Chi is Shih 245: see Karlgren, Bernhard, The Book of Odes (Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1950), 200–2.Google Scholar

31 More will be said on ‘Shu-chün’ later in the text. For the relevant passages here, see Shan-hai ching, 16.392–93 and 18.469 (page references in this article are to K‘o’s, YüanShan-hai ching chiao-chu , Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1980).Google Scholar

32 Graham, A. C., ‘The Nung-chia’, 96.Google Scholar

33 But this is also true of Hou Chi. The author of Shih 258 laments that ‘Hou Chi is powerless’ (see Karlgren, , The Book of Odes, 224Google Scholar) in dealing with a terrible drought. It is clear that he was among the deities singled out for sacrifices at such times.

34 On the suffix of shih, see n. 18 above.

35 Bodde, Derk, Festivals in Classical China: New Year and other annual observances during the Han dynasty (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 223.Google Scholar

36 On which see Bodde, , Festivals in Classical China, 223–4Google Scholar. Also, Wang Ch'ung, in his Lun-heng (12.13a, SPPY ed.), calls Shen Nung, Hsien Nung, and there is an entry on ‘Hsien Nung’, in Liu Shao'sFeng-su t'ung-yi (ch. 8, ‘Ssu-tien’, vol. 2, 352–3 in Li-ch'i, Wang, ed., Feng-su t'ung-yi chiao-chu , Peking: Chung-hua, 1981Google Scholar).

37 Li-chi hsün-tsuan, 23.5ab, ‘Chi-fa’.

38 Vol. 1, 429, in the indexed Ch'un-ch'iu ching-chuan yin-te (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1983).Google Scholar

39 Unless this connects in some way with the Chu of Chu Jung. Archaic pronunciations of Chuand Chuwere *diug and *tiog respectively. Archaic pronunciations in this article follow the reconstructions found in Tōdō Akiyasu'sKanwa Daijiten (Gakushūkenkyūsha, 1978).

40 In his commentary to the Tso-chuan passage cited above, Tu Yü claimed that ‘Lieh Shan shih was a feudal lord in the age of Shen Nung.’ But as the authors of the ‘Cheng-yi’ commentary went on to point out, since the Li-chi says he ‘possessed the whole land’ (you t'ien-hsia ), he must have been the Son of Heaven and cannot have been a mere feudal lord. For these comments see the Shih-san ching chu-shu edition of the Tso-chuan, vol. 2, 2124.2.

41 I have argued elsewhere (‘The three-bodied Shun and the completion of creation’, BSOAS, 59/2, 1996, 268–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar) that in the Shan-hai ching passage (18.469), ‘Ti Chün begat the three-bodied one, and the three-bodied one begat Yi-chün’, the ‘three-bodied one’ (san-shen ) and Yi-chün, might both be Hsieh, the first of the Shang people. He was ‘three-bodied’ or ‘three-natured’ because his father, the sky god Ti Chün, was part bird and part dragon, while his mother was human.

42 Li-chi hsün-tsuan, 23.5a.

43 From Mi's, Huang-fuTi-wang shih-chi as cited in T'ai-p'ing yü-lan 78.5b (vol. 1, 365–6, in the Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü ed., 1985).Google Scholar

44 In the commentary to ‘Liao-shui’, Shui-ching chu, 32.1a (SPPY ed.).

45 T'ai-p'ing yü-lan, 78.7b, vol. 1, 366.

46 See his ‘San-huang wu-ti k'ao’, in Ku-shih pien, vol. 7B, 364.Google Scholar

47 Mencius, 3A.4, p. 20 (in the Meng-tzu yin-te). Translation here is by Lau, D. C., Mencius (New York: Penguin Books, 1970), 102.Google Scholar

48 He does, in short, much the same things that are elsewhere attributed to Yi the archer. For more on this connection, see my article ‘The three-bodied Shun and the completion of creation’.

49 Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu, 6.6a (SPPY ed.), ‘Yin-ch'u’.

50 See K'uan, Yang, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 381–2Google Scholar. Also, K'o, Yüan, Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih, 322–7Google Scholar. The ancient script forms of yi and yen noted by Yang K'uan (p. 382) areandrespectively.

51 As translated by Knechtges, David R., Wen xuan: or selections of refined literature, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 291–3Google Scholar. For the text, see Wen-hsüan, 3.25b–26a, 44 (using the concordanced text published by Cheng-chung in Taipei, 1971).

52 Actually this is in his commentary to Chang Heng's ‘Fu on the Southern Capital’, as cited by Liu Caoin his commentary to the ‘Chün-kuo chih’ in the Hou Han shu, which in turn is cited by K'o, Yüan, Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 165.Google Scholar

53 Shan-hai ching, 5.165.

54 ibid., 16.411.

55 Granet, Marcel, Danses et légendes de la Chine ancienne (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959 [originally published in 1926]), 314Google Scholar. Specifically, Granet cites ch. 6 in the Huai-nan tzu (6.1a): ‘In antiquity, Music Master K'uang played the tune “White Snow”, and divine beings as a result sent down torrential winds and rains, causing Duke P'ing to become old and frail and [causing] a great droughtin the state of Chin.’ To this text, Kao Yu adds in his commentary: ‘these prodigies were headless demons who danced holding lances.’ Granet (pp. 305–5) has a good deal to say on Keng-fu and his relation to drought. Also mentioned here, of course, is the ‘headless’ Hsing-t'ien, on which see, for example, K'o, Yuan, Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih (Peking: Jen-min wen-hsüeh, 1979), 144–6.Google Scholar

56 Worth looking at here is Allan's, Sarah article ‘Drought, human sacrifice and the Mandate of Heaven in a lost text from the Shang shu’, BSOAS, 47/3, 1984, 523–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 Translation is by Bernhard, Karlgren, The Book of Odes, 165–6.Google Scholar

58 ibid., 166–7.

59 Duke Chao, 29th year, p. 429 (in Ch'un-ch'iu ching-chuan yin-te). ‘Hou-t'u was the god of the Soil (she) while Chi (Millet) was the Regulator of Fields (t'ien-cheng ). There was a son of Lieh Shan shih called Chu who was the Millet, and through the Hsia dynasty people sacrificed to him. But Ch'i of Chou was also the Millet. And from Shang times on we have sacrificed to him.’

60 Shih-san-ching chu-shu , vol. 1. 475.1. The ‘Cheng-yi’ commentary to the Shih was written under the direction of K'ung Ying-ta(574–648).

61 Ch. 11 of the li-chir.

62 Of the Chou-li . See Chou-li 17, Shih-san ching chu-shu, vol. 1, 754.3. But I cannot locate these words in the present commentary.

63 Shih-san-ching chu-shu, vol. 1, 475.2.

64 Shan-hai ching, 17.430.

65 See ibid., 16.392–393 and 18.469.

66 See, for example, Shih-chi, 1, ‘Wu-ti pen-chi ,’ vol. 1, 44 (Chung-hua, shu-chü ed., Peking, 1959).Google Scholar

67 See my ‘The three-bodied Shun and the completion of creation’; also, Yang K'uan, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 370. Important evidence on this is Lo Pi'scomment in his Lu-shih (‘Hou Chi’, 11.17a, SPPY ed.): ‘Yi-chün was enfeoffed in Shang. This was Shang-chün.’

68 Shan-hai ching, 18.469. Actually, the grammar of this passage is such that ch'iao-ch'ui here means, I think, ‘arts and crafts’; it is not a name. The translation, therefore, should be: ‘Yi-chün—it was he who was the first to make arts and crafts, the first to invent the one hundred crafts for the people below.’ Still, Ch'ui does have a distinct identity in the Shih-pen and elsewhere. In the ‘Yao-tien’, Shun appoints him to be his ‘Master of Works’ (kung-kung ).

69 See YüanK‘o’s notes to Shan-ching ching, 18.469.

70 Kuan-tzu 16.7a (SPPY ed.), ch. 50.1.

71 Though Kao Yu (fl. A. D. 200) in his notes certainly makes that identification. See Huai-nan tzu, 3.3ab and 5.16a–17b and the notes for the full complement of the Five Ti.

72 Shih-chi, 28, vol. 4, 1361.

73 Graham, ‘The Nung-chia’, 73, n. 27.

74 Shih-chi, 1, vol. 1, 3.

75 Cited in Ma Su's Yi-shih, 4.5b. Other sources, including the Ti-wang shih-chi (cited on the same page), say that they sat on the throne for eight generations, the rulers succeeding Shen Nung being Ti Ch'eng, Ti Lin, Ti Ming, Ti Chih, Ti Lai, Ti Ai, and Ti Yü-wang.

76 In his commentary to Huai-nan tzu, 15.1b.

77 I will have more to say on the battle of Huang Ti and Yen Ti in a later publication. For a sampling of the relevant passages concerning this fight, see K‘o’s, YüanKu shen-hua hsüan-shih, 128–46Google Scholar; also Yang K'uan, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 199–205. Most sources record that Huang Ti first defeated Yen Ti at a place called Pan Ch'üan, then slaughtered Ch'ih Yu at Cho Lu. My own feeling is that this represents an historicized and humanized form of a myth of creation in which the ‘August Lord’ (huang-ti ) creates order from chaos by conquering and harnessing ‘fire’ (Yen Ti)—that fills the sky—and ‘water’ (Ch'ih Yu)—that covers the land. For more on this myth of creation, see my ‘The three-bodied Shun and the completion of creation’.

78 Ts'ui Shu's arguments are cited approvingly by Chieh-kang, Ku in his article ‘Wu-te chung-shih shuo-hsia-ti cheng-chih ho li-shih’, Ku-shih pien, vol. 5, 560–4.Google Scholar

79 ibid. Also, see Yang K'uan's ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 265. The argument here is that Liu Hsin was seeking to justify Wang Mang's insurrection. The Han's loss to the Hsin was a matter of ‘fire’ ceding to ‘earth’, the model for this in the past being Shen Nung's ( = Yen Ti) ceding the throne to Huang Ti. But Yüan K'o (Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih, 86) dated the fusion of Shen Nung and Yen Ti to the end of the Ch'in or start of the Han, since it is attested in the Shih-pen. And Karlgren (‘Legends and cults in ancient China’, 221–2) argued that ‘the idea that Yen Ti is identical with Shen Nung already crops up in early Han time’ and notes the identification in ch. 22 of Tung Chung-shu's(c. 179–c. 104 B. C.) Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu . I have been unable to locate the passage he had in mind.

80 As cited in Ma Su's Yi-shih, 4.5b.

81 Tso-chuan, 480.

82 ibid., 392. We have here, by the way, an early list of the ‘Five Emperors’; here the sequence is Huang Ti, Yen Ti, Kung Kung, Ta Hao and Shao Hao.

83 Kuo-yü, 10.8a, ‘Chin-yü, 4’ (SPPY ed.).

84 Shan-hai ching, 16.415.

85 ibid., 18.464.

86 ibid., 18.471.

87 For example, it is ling that is translated as ‘priestess’ by Hawkes in songs 1 and 7. See David, Hawkes (tr.), The songs of the South (New York: Penguin Books, 1985), 102 and 113Google Scholar; Ch'u-tzupu-chu, 2.3a (p. 99) and 2.17a (p. 127).

88 See Kuo P'u's (276–324) note, Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 416.

89 In the Shih-pen, in the same passage that says he invented the plough and the hoe. See K‘o’s, Yuan notes, Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 469Google Scholar.

90 Though elsewhere in the Shan-hai ching (16.395) he is said to be Chuan Hsü'sdescendant. ‘Chuan Hsü begat Lao-t'ung; Lao-t'ung begat Chu Jung and Chu Jung begat Crown Prince Long Lute.’

91 Shan-hai ching, 3.92.

92 Specifically ‘Silkworm Thorn’ trees. Read, Bernard E., Chinese medicinal plants from the Pen-ts'ao kang-mu (Taipei: Southern Materials Center, Inc., 1977), item 599 (p. 193).Google Scholar

93 Shan-hai ching, 5.142.

94 Which at least one source glosses as the ling-chih , sacred fungus.

95 Granet, , Danses et légendes, 517–19Google Scholar. Remember that one of Yen Ti's grandsons was named ‘Drum’, while another was credited with making bells.

96 Granet, , Danses et légendes, 519Google Scholar. On the yao fish, see Shan-hai ching, 2.44 and 4.115, where they are called hua fish.

97 I am not sure what to make of the evidence presented by the ‘Ch'u Silk Manuscript’, in which Yen Ti assumes an importance he has nowhere else; there he appears to be the supreme celestial god, the place normally held by Ti Chün: ‘Yen Ti thence commanded Chu-Jung to take the Four Gods, to descend and stabilize the Three Heavens⃛’ (Translated by Noel, Barnard, The Ch'u Silk Manuscript: translation and commentary, Canberra: Australian National University, 1973, 111Google Scholar.)

98 See Yang K'uan, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 246ff. Yang K'uan and others have noted that the correlations of blue/east, red (ch'ih)/south, white/west, and black/north, are already found in the Mo-tzu (chs. 47 and 68).

99 Huai-nan tzu, 13.21b. Kao Yu's comment here is ‘Yen Ti, Shen Nung shih, ruled the world with the virtue of fire. After he died people entrusted their sacrifices [to him] as the god of the stove.’ For the Lun-heng version of this see the chapter ‘Chi-yi’, 25.13a.

100 See Hsin, Ho, Chu-shen ti ch'i-yüan Peking: San-lien, 1986), 159Google Scholar; K'o, Yüan, Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih, 83Google Scholar. For the original text, see Po-hu t'ung, 4.29a (p. 211 in the Chung-kuo tzu-hsüeh ming-chu chi-chenged.), ‘Wu-hsing’. For a complete translation of the passage in question, see Som, Tjan Tjoe, Po Hu T'ung: the comprehensive discussions in the White Tiger Hall (Leiden: Brill, 1949), vol. 2, 434Google Scholar. But the translation as ‘sun’ needs qualification; t'ai-yang here, for the summer, contrasts with shao-yang ‘younger yang’ for the spring and shao-yin and t'ai-yin as markers of autumn and winter respectively.

101 Tso-chuan, 429. (Duke Chao, 29th year). Specifically, in the Kuo-yü (‘Cheng-yü’, 16.2ab, SPPY ed.) he is said to have been Kao Hsin shih's( = Ti K‘u’s) Fire Regulator. However, ‘Chu Jung’ is presented as a title as well as a name—e.g. the ‘Chu Jung’ means much the same as the ‘Fire Regulator’—and in the Tso-chuan, this is the title given to Li(elsewhere Li), who was Chuan Hsü's( = Kao Yang's) son. The text reads: ‘The Fire Regulator was called Chu Jung. Chuan Hsü had a son called Li who became the Chu Jung.’ The confusing references to Chu Jung as name and title, and his identification with Li (of the pair Chungand Li) or Chung-li, are thoroughly reviewed by David Hawkes, ‘The heirs of Gao-yang’, 14–19.

102 See, for example, the Chou-li as cited in the Feng-su t'ung-yi, ch. 8 (vol. 1, 360–61 in Feng-su t'ung-yi chiao-chu). ‘Chuan Hsü had a son named Li who served as the Chu Jung. He is sacrificed to as the Stove God.’

103 See K'uan, Yang, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 314–16.Google Scholar

104 Shan-hai ching, 8.230.

105 ibid., 2.42–3.

106 And, as a matter of fact, Wang Yi's note to chu-ming in the Ch'u-tz'u (‘Chao-hun’) is ‘Chu Ming is the sun’. (Ch'u-tz'upu-chu, 9.15a, p. 359.)

107 pp. 307–11 in ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’.

108 On this point see my article, ‘The three-bodied Shun and the completion of creation’.

109 The translation here is by Burton, Watson, Mo Tzu: basic writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963) 57Google Scholar. For the original text, see Mo-tzu yin-te, 32 (ch. 19).

110 Kuo-yü, ‘Cheng-yü’ (16.2ab, SPPY).

111 Shih-san-ching chu-shu, chüan, 53, vol. 2, 2123.2–3.

112 Hence Hawkes's translation of Chu Jung as ‘Smelter Priest’ (‘The heirs of Gao-yang’, 15).

113 For this reading see the Tso-chuan, Duke Chao, year 5 (p. 357). There Chuang Shu divines about the birth of his son using the Yi Ching, and the result is ‘Ming-yi’ (hexagram 36) moving to ‘Ch'ien’ (hexagram 15). In relating this to the position Chuang Shu's son will hold in society, the diviner explains: ‘⃛ there are ten periods in the day, which correspond also to the ten ranks. Reckoning from the king downwards, the rank of duke is the 2nd, and that of minister is the 3rd. The highest point of the day is when the sun is in the meridian. When it is meal time, that represents the 2nd rank; and early dawn represents the third. Ming-yi's becoming Ch'ien represents brightness, but that which is not yet fully developed —corresponding, we may presume, to the early dawn.’ (Translation by James, Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. v, Part II, 604Google Scholar (italics added).)

114 There is another possibility. This could have been somebody's name: ‘Chu Jung’ might have been ‘Invoker Jung’: ‘Chu X’ as ‘Invoker X’ is certainly used this way in the Tso-chuan. Thus Invoker Jung might have been a very effective invoker in ancient times, so effective that he was divinized. We seem to have cases of this sort with the ‘shamans’ Wu Hsienand Wu Yang etal. who are mentioned in the Shan-hai ching.

115 Tung Chung-shuactually gives us the words to be used in such invocations. We find in his chapter on ‘Praying for Rain’: ‘Select a shaman who is spotless and pure who can distinguish the beneficial to be the invoker. The invoker must fast for three days and put on azure robes (for the spring rites). He/she must first repeatedly bow, then on his knees present himself [in front of the god's image [?ch'en ]; when that has been done, he should repeatedly bow, then rise and invoke [the gods] saying: “Vast Heaven begat the five grains to nourish the people, but now the five grains are withering up in the drought. We fear they will not reach the harvesting stage. Respectfully we present you with clear wine and sliced up dried meat, and repeatedly bowing we ask you for rain.”’ (Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu, 16.2b–5b. The words of the ‘invocation’ remain the same through the four seasons; the colour of clothes worn by the invoker change.)

116 K'uan, Yang, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 307–11.Google Scholar

117 Shih-chi, 3, vol. 1, 92.

118 K'uan, Yang, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun’, 318Google Scholar. On the fact that Chu Jung was regarded by the people of Ch'u as their original ancestor, he goes on: ‘The Ch'u people were originally the Yin and Eastern Yi. And when they moved south, naturally they considered themselves to be the descendants of the Fire Regulator Chu Jung.’

119 Karlgren, , ‘Legends and cults in ancient China’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, XVII, 1946, 221.Google Scholar

120 ibid.

121 ibid., 233.

122 The significance of this will become clear in the conclusion.

123 Another connection—in the Shu-chün/‘drought demon’ story the drought demon is chased to the north of the Ch'ih-shui; Yen Ti's wife is the daughter of the Ch'ih-shui.

124 This makes me wonder about the myth in which Chung-li(or Chung and Li) separate Heaven and Earth (on which see Shang-shu K'ung chuan, 12.6b–7a, and the Kuo-yü, ‘Ch'u-yü, hsia’, 18.1a–2b.) Could it be ‘ploughing and seeds’ (and, or)—that is to say ‘agriculture’—that led to this separation? This seems to be true in some accounts of this myth that we find elsewhere. For examples, see T'ing-jui, Ho, A comparative study of myths and legends of Formosan aborigines (Taipei: Orient Cultural Service, 1971), 232–3Google Scholar. There we find—Story 41: ‘Long ago the sun hung low over the earth. And the old woman called Mona said to the sky, “You go up high, because I cannot pound my rice when you are in the way.” Then the sky moved higher.’ Story 42: ‘It is said that in the early days of creation the sky was low, but that one day a woman, while pounding rice, hit it with her pestle and it ascended to its present position.’ Story 43: ‘In the beginning, the sky hung so low over the earth that the people could not stand upright and could not do their work. For this reason the man in the sky said to the sky, “Come up!” Then the sky went up to its present place.’ The founding of agriculture marks the ‘dawn’, as it were, of a new age in the growth of culture.

125 Who while alive was a shaman. See his ‘The genesis and spread of temple cults in Fukien’, 349–96.

126 On this point, see for example, Jordan's, David K.Gods, ghosts, and ancestors: folk religion in a Taiwanese village (Taipei: Cave Books Ltd, 1985), 70–86.Google Scholar

127 For the ‘Kao-t'ang fu’, see Wen-hsüan, 19.1b–6b (pp. 250–2). For an English translation, see Fusek, Lois, ‘The “Kao-t'ang fu”,’ Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, xxx, 1972–1973, 392–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

128 Here citing Yü Chih-ku'sChu-kung chiu-shih cited in K'o, Yüan, Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih, 91–2Google Scholar. In a similar vein, the Hsiang-yang ch'i chiu-chuan , cited in Li Shan's notes to the ‘Kao-t'ang fu’ (Wen-hsüan, 19.2a, p. 250) notes: ‘Ch'ih Ti's daughter was named Yao Chi. She died before she left home. She is buried on the south side of Wu-shan; thus she is called the Lady of Wu-shan.’ Yao Chi is simply ‘Ti's daughter’ in the ‘Kao-t'ang fu’ itself.

129 From the Lieh-hsien chuan , here using the Tao-tsang version (CT 294, vol.8, 6111). For the French translation by Kaltenmark, see Kaltenmark, Max, Le Lie-sien tchouan: biographies légendaires des Immortels taoistes de léantiquité (Paris: Collège de France: 1987), 35–42.Google Scholar