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Voyagers without Abode and the Departure to a Better World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Wolfgang Bauer

Extract

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Transcending all ideological differences, the Book of Metamorphoses (Yijing, I-Ging) has been viewed in traditional Chinese culture as a basic work not only of the art of sooth-saying, but of an understanding of the world as a whole. Among the 64 situations described therein, the 56th deals with the constellation of ‘the wanderer’ (Lü). It is symbolized by the ‘fire’ above the ‘mountain’, i.e., a fleeting phenomenon whose ephemeral character is highlighted by the fact that it appears above something as solid and immovable as a mountain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 42 , Issue 165 , March 1994 , pp. 27 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. The different versions of the title of the Book of Metamorphoses have their origins in the divergent transcription systems of Western languages, some of which in turn are derived from old-fashioned pronunciations. The reading 'Yijing' corresponds to the modern Pinyin transcription that is widely used in China today. This transcrip tion has also been used for other Chinese concepts occurring in this article.

2. The 64 basic situations described in the Book of Metamorphoses are symbolized by 64 hexagrams. They are composed either of six continuous ‘male' Yang lines or broken ‘female' Ying lines. The figure of 64 is thus numerologically fixed. However, according to the Chinese comments the hexagrams are in principle also combined into trigrams of two each, i.e., they are marked by three of the lines mentioned above. This combination allowed for a total of eight trigrams accounting, apart from the symbolic eight family members (father, mother, three sons, and three daughters), also for eight natural phenomena (heaven, earth, thunder, water, mountains, wind, fire, and sea). They became, so to speak, the secondary names for those trigrams.

3. The sequence of the 64 situations in the Book of Metamorphoses has been fixed in the received text as described here. But it has been the object of speculation even in traditional China. This means that the situations are not to be read in isolation, but can be viewed as ‘stages' in a cosmic political-historical or, equally, in a person al-biographical developmental process. In 1973 a complete copy of the Book of Metamorphoses was found during the sensational discovery of a tomb near Mawangdui in Hunan Province that had been sealed in 169 B.C. Apart from impor tant variations in the use of characters that provide different meanings to the text, the manuscript also contains a different sequence of the individual situations.

4. This original commentary that accompanies each of the 64 hexagrams is identi fied by the technical concept of ‘image' (xiang). The manuscript found at Mawangdui (see note 3) interestingly enough does not yet contain this commentary. Its underlying moralizing tone points to its ‘Confucian' origins. It is also reflected in the key word ‘the noble person', the ideal human being in Confucianism.

5. This oldest and most important interpretation which appears in all 64 hexa grams is called tuan, a technical concept that R. Wilhelm has translated as ‘verdict'. However, the character used for tuan in fact signifies ‘running pig' and is therefore difficult to reconcile with Wilhelm's translation. Probably it stands here for the similarly read character duan in the sense of ‘decision'.

6. Like tuan that explains the hexagram as a whole, this total of 384 interpreta tions of the 64 six-line hexagrams is fundamental to the Book of Metamorphoses. They are already to be found in the Mawangdui manuscript. The technical term for them is yao (lines [of metamorphosis]).

7. On this point see E. Balazs, Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy (New Haven, 1964), esp. 247-54.

8. These five elements might be more accurately and dynamically translated as ‘forces'. Starting from earlier versions in the third century B.C., a very complicated system of relationship was constructed a century later that comprised all aspects of being. All elements came to be associated with a whole range of properties, result ing in a linking of Nature and society which frequently gained a political meaning. There are many places in the system of relationships where danger is associated with the element of water.

9. For the very rich literature on Mu tianzi zhuan, including the various transla tions of the text, see W.H. Nienhauser, ed., The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington, 1986), 632-33. See also the detailed study by R. Mathieu, Le Mu tianzi zhuan. Traduction annotée, étude critique (Paris, 1978), 274-85.

10. On Qu Yuan and the rich literature relating to him in Asian and Western lan guages, see W.H. Nienhauser, ed., Indiana Companion, 352-53. See also the special ized study by L.A. Schneider, A Madman of Ch'u. The Chinese Myth of Loyalty and Dissent (Berkeley, 1980), which also traces the history of the impact of Qu Yuan up to the present.

11. On the Elegies of Chu, see W.H. Nienhauser, ed., Indiana C ompanion, 347-49. A complete translation which includes also Encounter with Sorrow is to be found in D. Hawkes, Ch'u Tz'u. The Songs of the South (London, 1959). The lines quoted here appear on pp.29-30.

12. See more generally on this point J.J.Y. Liu, The Chinese Knight Errant (Chicago, 1966).

13. Translation in D. Hawkes, Ch'u Tz'u, 35-44. See also A. Waley, The Nine Songs. A Study of Shamanism in Ancient China (London, 1955).

14. See D. Hawkes, Ch'u Tz'u, 104.

15. For examples see G. Lang-Tan, Der unauffindbare Einsiedler. Eine Untersuchung zu einem Topos in der Tang-Lyrik (Frankfurt, 1985); W. Kubin, Der durchsichtige Berg. Die Entwicklung in der Naturanschauung in der chinesischen Literatur (Stuttgart, 1985), 160-83. For a survey of the literature on eremitism in China that has proliferated in recent years see W. Bauer, "The Hidden Hero: Creation and Disintegration of the Ideal of Eremitism," in: D. Munro, ed., Individualism and Holism. Studies in Confucisn and Taoist Values (Ann Arbor, 1985), 157-87, esp. 183f.

16. See D. Hawkes, Ch'u Tz'u, 87.

17. On this rich genre see J. Robinet, "Randonnées exstatiques des Taoistes dans les astres," in: Monumenta Serica, 32 (1976), 159-273; E.H. Schafer, "Mineral Imagery in the Paradise Poems of Kuan-hsiu," in: Asia Major, N.S., 10 (1963), 73-102, esp. 80; idem, Pacing the Void. T'ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley, 1977, 234-69; W. Kubin, Der durchsichtige Berg, 134-42, 182-83; W. Bauer, China und die Hoffnung auf Gliick. Paradiese, Utopien, Idealvorstellungen (Munich, 1971), 260-63.

18. A number of biographical collections of ‘immortals' appeared between the first and fourth century A.D. Although strictly speaking a contradiction in them selves, they were highly popular in their time and were later repeatedly carried forward or imitated.

19. On this complex poet and his oeuvre see W.H. Nienhauser, ed., Indiana Companion, 790-91.

20. This alludes to the two basic types of Chinese paradises. There were the mountain paradises centered on the Kunlun Mountains in the West. They were believed to be protected by drift-sand deserts that would devour the uninitiated traveller. And there were the island paradises beyond the shores of the East that were said, analogously, to be surrounded by stretches of ‘light water' that would not carry ships. See W. Bauer, China und die Hoffnung, 248-53.

21. Quoted in D. Fubao, ed., Quan Han Sanguo Jin Nanbeichao (Beijing, 1959), 148.

22. See R.G. Wagner, "Lebensstil und Drogen im chinesischen Mittelalter," in: T'oung Pao, 59 (1973), 79-178.

23. See W. Bauer, China und die Hoffnung, 154.

24. For a comparison of Chinese and Christian eremitism see W. Bauer, "The Hermit's Temptation: Aspects of Eremitism and the West in the 3rd and 4th Centuries A.D.," in: Zhongyan yanjiu yuan, ed., Guoji Hanxue huiyi lunwen ji. Sixiang yu zhexue zu (Taipei, 1981), 73-115.

25. See L.L. Ledderose, "Religious Elements in Chinese Landscape Art," in: S. Bush and C. Murck, eds., Theories of the Art of China (Princeton, 1983), 118-34.

26. On the emergence of Chinese travel literature, and of the travel diary in par ticular, see above all, J.M. Haggett, On the Road in Twelfth Century China. The Travel Diaries of Fan Chengda (1126-1193) (Stuttgart, 1989), esp. 1-69.

27. On the most famous Chinese travellers in History see the general account by J. Mirsky, The Great Chinese Travellers (Chicago, 1964); on the early Buddhist travel diaries see N.E. Boulton, "Early Chinese Buddhist Travel Records as a Literary Genre," unpubl. PhD. thesis, Georgetown University, 1982, which also evaluates and assesses the many older studies on this topic.

28. On Han-shan and his poetry see W.H. Nienhauser, ed., Indiana Companion, 394-95; Ch'i-yü Wu, "A Study of Han Shan," in: T'oung Pao, 45 (1957), 392-450. On his influence in the Far East and in the West see Ling Chung, "The Reception of the Cold Mountain's Poetry in the Far East and the United States," in: China and the West. Comparative Literature Studies (Hongkong, 1980), 85-96. A comprehensive trans lation in S. Schumacher, Han Shan. 150 Gedichte vom Kalten Berg (Düsseldorf, 1974).

29. See S. Schumacher, Han Shan, 66.

30. See W. Kubin, Der durchsichtige Berg, 204-14.

31. For the extensive literature on the life of Zheng He, his journeys and the leg ends surrounding him that are also of literary interest, see R. Ptak, Cheng Hos Abenteuer im Drama und Roman der Ming-Zeit (Stuttgart, 1986), esp. 13-14. The jour neys themselves were also described in detail by the Muslim-Chinese scholar Ma Huan (ca. 1380-1460), who participated in them. See the translation by J.V.G. Mills, The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores (Cambridge, 1970).

32. On this novel with the title Jing hua yuan, see W.H. Nienhauser, ed., Indiana Companion, 318-19.

33. See ibid., 413-418.

34. On Chinese emigration, especially to the U.S., see Ta Chen, Immigrant Communities in South China. A Study of Overseas Migration (New York, 1939); Lai-To Lee, ed., Early Chinese Immigrant Societies. Case Studies from North America and British South East Asia (Singapore, 1988); F.L.K. Hsu, The Challenge of the American Dream. The Chinese in the United States of America (Belmont, 1971); A.B. Chan, Gold Mountain. The Chinese in the New World (Vancouver, 1983); and the collection of essays "Was ist chinesische Tradition? - Die Literatur der Auslands-Chinesen," in: die horen, 34/4 (1989), ll9-70.

35. See V. Dierkes, "Eingepfercht in einem Haus aus Holz," in: die horen, 34/4 (1989), 139-52; the poem ibid., 146.