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The Literary Function of K'un-lun Mountain in the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Deborah Porter
Deborah Porter*
Affiliation:
Department of Languages and Literature, 153 Orson Spencer Hall The University of Utah, Salt Lake City UT 84112
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In this article I question the assumption that all place-names in the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan refer to real places. I suggest instead a mythic origin for many of these seemingly referential elements. By analyzing a complex of myths either referred to or alluded to in the text, I show that several crucial place-names come in fact from cosmological referents rather than geographical ones. The Mu T'ien-tzu chuan cannot then be read purely as a historical account. I extend this argument by revealing how the elements of cosmological myth in the narrative must themselves be read as elements of symbolic discourse; that is, they have to be read within an astronomical context as references to celestial phenomena. By reading the cosmological and astronomical discourses of the myths together, I demonstrate the literary significance of the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan, a significance which to date has been obscured by misreadings of its historicity. Finally, I argue that only by reading the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan as a literary fiction can one understand what it tells us about how notions of political legitimacy were constructed and then altered in the representation of King Mu's (fictional) journey. The narrative is thus revealed to be a wholly symbolic tale whose interpretation has implications for the wider realm of the interconnections among history, literature and culture.

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Early China , Volume 18 , 1993 , pp. 73 - 106
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Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1993

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References

* Initial research for this article was supported by a grant from the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China. I am grateful to Li Hsüeh-ch'in and Hu P'ing-sheng for their help during the tenure of my grant. I would also like to thank Professors David Pankenier, Edward Shaughnessy and Anthony Yü for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

1. For various records of the discovery, see the Chin shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1987), 3.70; 16.490; 51.1432–33Google ScholarPubMed. There is some discrepancy over the year of discovery (e.g., 279, 280, 281) that may derive from confusion caused by a hiatus between the time when the texts were discovered and the time when the actual editing and transcribing work began; see Chin shu, 3.85 n. 23; Hsi-tsu, Chu , Chi-chung shu k'ao (Peking: Chung-hua, 1960), 1–3 Google Scholar; see also T'ing-sheng, Wei , Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao , 3 vols. (Taipei: Chung-hua hsüeh-shu yuan, 1970), vol. 1, 48-51 Google Scholar.

2. The editors’ belief that the vault was the tomb of King Hsiang was based on the final entry of one of the texts discovered, the Bamboo Annals (Chu shu chi nien ), which uses the expression jin wang , or “the present king,” to refer to the son of King Hui-ch'eng of Wei. The genealogical text Shih-pen identifies this son as King Hsiang; see Hsün Hsü's preface to the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, printed in Shih, Ku , Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu , (Shanghai: Shang-wu, 1934 Google Scholar; rpt., Taipei: Shang-wu, 1976), Mu-lu, 7. Chu Hsi-tsu, Chi-chung-shu k'ao, 3–7, is alone in not accepting the King Hsiang hypothesis; he cites a discrepancy between the reign and death dates of King Hui-ch'eng in the Bamboo Annals (died year 17) and in the Shih chi (died year 36; [Peking: Chung-hua, 1959], 44.1849Google ScholarPubMed). Chu believes the confusion stems from the exclusion of the reign of King Hsiang's son, King Ai . in the Bamboo Annals. Chu concludes that although the tomb's contents indicate a royal “tomb master,” and although the tomb was located in an area controlled by the Wei state, one cannot conclude decisively which king was buried there. Wei T'ing-sheng argues that the vault was not a tomb at all but a storage vault for the state of Liang; Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao, vol. 1,54ff.

3. For the process of the compilation and transmission of the text, see Kung-liang, Chang , “Chi chiu-ch'ao-pen Mu t'ien-tzu chuan , Yü-kung 2 (1934), 31ffGoogle Scholar; and idem., “ Mu-chuan chih pan-pen chi kuan-yü Mu-chuan chih chu-shu” , Yü-kung 2 (1934), 18ffGoogle Scholar; Hsi-tsu, Chu, Chi-chung shu k'ao, 28–45 Google Scholar, and Wei T'ing-sheng, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao, vol. 1, 91–143. My analysis will be based on Ku Shih's annotated edition of the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, which reproduces all principal commentaries and is acknowledged by most scholars to be the best edition of the text. However, being concerned only with the “Western” leg of King Mu's journey, Ku annotates only the first four chüan. Some scholars argue that this is the earliest and narratively best integrated section of the text; chüan 5 appears to be a hodge-podge collection of events and anecdotes some of which may have belonged in the first four chüan but somehow got misplaced; and chüan 6, which deals with King Mu's sorrow over the death of his favorite consort Sheng Ji , was originally a separate and distinct text that was appended to the present day Mu t'ien-tzu chuan. See Mathieu, Rémi, Le Mu tianzi zhuan, traduction annotée, étude critique (Paris: College de France, Institut Des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1978), 121 Google Scholar, for a summary of these textual considerations. While I accept the premise that the first four chüan constitute the earliest parts of the narrative, I consider elements of chüan 5 that resonate with the first four chüan as well. In addition to Ku Shih's text, I have also consulted T'an Ts'ui Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chu-shu , (Shih-pi lin-lang kuan ts'ung-shu ed.); Ch'en Feng-heng , Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chu (Tao-kuang k'uei-mao ed.); Ting Ch'ien , Mu t'ien-tzu chuan ti-li k'ao-cheng (Che-chiang t'u-shu-kuan ts'ung-shu ed.); Liu Shih-p'ei , Mu t'ien-tzu chuan pu-shih (Liu Shen-shu hsien-sheng i-shu ed.), vol. 36.

4. Ch'en Feng-heng cites Su Shih (1037–1101), who suggests a romantic context. Ch'en does not entirely accept Su's reading but he does not offer any other interpretation; see Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chu pu-cheng, 3.7a. Ku Shih, on the other hand, argues that the nature of the exchange between King Mu and Hsi-wang-mu is very intimate because King Mu is Hsi-wang-mu's father; see Mu t'ien-ztu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 156.

5. See for example, Pelliot, Paul, “L'Etude du Mou t'ien tseu tchouan ,” T'oung pao 21 (1922), 98–102 Google Scholar; Chieh-kang, Ku , “Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chi ch'i chu-tso shih-tai” , Wen shih che 1 (1951), 63–68 Google Scholar; Masaru, Mitarai “Boku tenshi den seiritsu no haikei” , Tōhōgaku 26 (1962), 17–30 Google Scholar; Cheng, Ch'ang , “Mu t'ien-tzu chuan shih wei-shu ma?” , Ho-pei ta-hsüeh hsüeh-pao 2 (1980), 30–53 Google Scholar; Wei T'ing-sheng, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao, vol. 1, 143–194; Mathieu, Le Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, 101–129; Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 1-24.

6. One can trace this debate over the historical authenticity of the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan through the changes in the texf s status as history or Action as reflected in the bibliographic treatises of dynastic histories. Wei T'ing-sheng, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao, vol. 1,152–191, provides a convenient list and summary of this.

7. See the comments in Hu's Ssu-pu cheng-wei , cited in Wei T'ing-sheng, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao, vol. 1, 152. For Wei's own conclusions, see ibid., 110–113; 209–225; 423–433; for Ku Shih's conclusions, see Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 1ff. For other scholars’ assesments and discussions of this debate, see Kung-liang, Chang, “Ku Shih chu Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu p'ing-lun” , Yü-kung 3 (1935), 32ffGoogle Scholar.; Mathieu, Le Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, 110ff. See too Shaughnessy, Edward L., Sources of Western Zhou History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 145 Google Scholar, who states that the calendrical system was not used consistently during the Western Chou. On the other hand, the similarity of the annalistic style to the ch'i-chül style as well as the anachronistic use of various grammatical constructions has led other scholars to conclude that the work is a forgery. See Yao Chi-heng , Ku-chin wei-shu-k'ao (Chih-pu-tsu chai ts'ung-shu ed.), 13a–14a; Chü-hsien, Wei , “Mu t'ien-tzu chuan ti yen-chiu” , in Ku-shih yan-chiu (Shanghai: I-wen, 1934), 196ffGoogle Scholar; Hsin-ch'eng, Chang Wei-shu t'ung-k'ao (Shanghai: Shang-wu, 1957; rpt., Taipei: Hung-yeh, 1979), 179–180Google Scholar; Ku Chieh-kang, “Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chi ch'i chu-tso shih-tai,” 63–64.

8. Wei T'ing-sheng is the strongest advocate for this position, and is the only scholar to consider bronze inscriptions in his analysis; see Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao, vol. 1, 209–224. Other scholars, such as Ku Chieh-kang, have argued that a geographical reading of the text indicates that Tsung-chou refers to the Eastern Chou capital Lo-yang , and thus must be read as an anachronistic reference proving the late date of the text; see Ku Chieh-kang, “Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chi ch'i chu-tso shih-tai,” 63.

9. I am by no means the first to point to the literary significance of the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan. However, no one to date has gone much beyond a general discussion of the tex's literary features. See Hsün, Lu , Chung-kuo wen-hsüeh shih-lüeh (Peking: Chung-hua, 1930; rpt.Google Scholar, Peking: Chung-hua, 1973), 9–11, where he claims that the text is a precursor to all of Chinese fiction. Tokei, F., “A propos du genre du Mou T'ien-tseu tchouan,” Acta Orientalia 9 (1958), 45–49 Google Scholar, discusses the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan in terms of its generic resemblance to romance history. Hulsewé, A.F.P., “Texts in Tombs,” Asiatische Studiën 18–19 (1965), 79–89Google Scholar, suggests that the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan may be a literary religious text with a function similar to the Egyptian Journey of the Dead texts. Hawkes, David, “Quest of the Goddess,” in Studies in Chinese Literary Genres, ed. Cyril, Birch (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), 54ffGoogle Scholar, compares the text's literary features to early examples of rhymeprose (fu ). Finally, both Rémi Mathieu, Le Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, 198 et passim, and Nienhauser, William H., “The Origins of Chinese Fiction,” Monumento Sérica 38 (1988–89), 201 Google Scholar, have discussed several literary features of the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan.

10. For a well presented survey of the history of myth studies in China, see Ming-tzu, Ch'ien , Shen-hua-hsüeh ti li-ch'eng (Hei-lung-chiang: Pei- fang wen-i, 1989)Google Scholar.

11. See for example, Karlgren, Bernhard, “Legends and Cults in Ancient China,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities XVIII (1946), 199–365 Google Scholar, especially 199–206; and Chang, K.C., Early Chinese Civilization: Anthropological Perspectives (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 180ffGoogle Scholar. Chang seems to have revised his view a bit when he argues that “the religious and cosmological concepts found in them [late Chou texts] should to some extent be continuous with those from earlier periods”; see Art, Myth and Ritual (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983), 68 Google Scholar. See also Eberhard's, Wolfram refutation of this argument in “Review of Legends and Cults, by Bernhard Karlgren,” Artibus Asiae 9.4 (1946), 355–367 Google Scholar. See also Allan, Sarah, The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 23ffGoogle Scholar.

12. See Lévi-Strauss, Claude, From Honey to Ashes, trans. John, and Doreen, Weightman, (London: Jonathan Cape, 1973), 356 Google Scholar; and idem., The Raw and the Cooked, trans. John, and Doreen, Weightman, (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1975), 13 Google Scholar et passim.

13. Santillana, Giorgio de and Dechend, Hertha von, Hamlet's Mill, An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time (Boston: Gambit Inc., 1969), 313 Google Scholar. See also Finley, Moses I., “Myth, Memory, and History,” History and Theory 4.3 (1964), 285 Google Scholar, where the function of myth is described as “presenting concrete facts.”

14. See Finley, “Myth, Memory, and Histoiy,” 283: “[Myths] make the past intelligible and meaningful by selection, by focusing on a few bits of the past which thereby acquired permanence, relevance, universal significance.”

15. Eliade, Mircea, Cosmos and History (Rpt.; New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), 57 Google Scholar et passim, discusses how myths can be understood as presenting the origins of religious rites.

16. This interpretive framework is informed in large part by the work of Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend: Hamlet's Mill. Major, John, “Myth, Cosmology, and the Origins of Chinese Science,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 5.1 (1978), 7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, summarizes their thesis: “Myths can be used and were from the beginning intended to be understood by initiates as compendia of cosmological teachings … myths served as technical language for recording all of the essential features of the first of the ancient exact sciences, astronomy.” See also Reiche, Harald A.T., “The Language of Archaic Astronomy: A Clue to the Atlantis Myth?” in Astronomy of the Ancients, ed. Brecher, Kenneth and Feirtag, Michael (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1979), 155–189 Google Scholar, for an example of the application of this theory to the interpretation of a well known Western myth.

17. John Major, “Origins of Chinese Science,” 7. See also Ong, Walter, Orality and Literacy (London: Methuen, 1982), 94 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, where he argues that the diffusion of writing through the population of ancient societies was not interiorized enough to affect the thought processes of the recorders of the oral tradition; orality lingered in the presence of writing. For an excellent review of the most recent scholarship on the issues surrounding the relationship between the oral and written traditions, see Thomas, Rosalind, Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 1–14 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18. Allan, Sarah, The Heir and the Sage: Dynastic Legend in Early China (San Fransisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1981)Google Scholar; Worthen, Thomas, The Myth of Replacement: Stars, Gods, and Order in the Universe (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

19. Wei T'ing-sheng, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao, vol. 2, 183–190, provides a convenient summary of the various locations attributed to K'un-lun and the reasons cited by several scholars.

20. The most detailed descriptions are found in the “T'ien-wen” chapter of the Ch'u tz'u (Ch'u-tz'u chi-chu [Shanghai: Shang-hai ku-chi, 1979], 57 Google Scholar), and in the “Chui-hsing” chapter of the Huai-nan-tzu (Huai-nan Hung-lie chi-chieh [Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch'eng ed.], 133). Yüan, K'o , Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien (Ch'eng-tu: Ssu-ch'uan she-hui k'o-hsüeh, 1985), 83–86 Google Scholar, provides a convenient collection of these and other excerpts focusing on K'un-lun. For an analysis of the different intellectual traditions represented in K'un-lun myths, see Chieh-kang, Ku, “ Chuang tzu ho Ch'u-tz'u chung K'un-lun ho P'eng-lai liang-ko shen-hua hsi-t' ung ti jung-ho” Chung-hua wen-shih lun-ts'ung 2 (1979), 31–57 Google Scholar.

21. See the excerpts from the Shan-hai-ching , “T'ien-wen,” Huai-nan-tzu and Shih-chi, collected by Yüan K'o, in Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 82–84.

22. See I-hsing, Hao , Shan-hai-ching chien-shu (Taipei: I-wen, 1974), 350 Google Scholar; also cited in Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 83.

23. Loewe, Michael, Ways to Paradise (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1979), 73,155 n. 199Google Scholar; Girardot, N.J., Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 173, 201, 203Google Scholar et passim; Eveline Porée-Maspero, Étude sur les rites agraires des Cambodgiens, 3 vols. (Paris: Mouton and Co., 1952, 1964, 1969), 786–787 Google Scholar, cited in Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism, 173. For the idea of an axis mundi, see Eliade, Mircea, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, trans. Trask, Willard R. (New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964), 42,71,120,169Google Scholar et passim.

24. See Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 208–211. Archer I is associated with the west and the moon, and even with Hsi-wang-mu who gave him the elixir of immortality.

25. See de Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, 256. For a more recent interpretation of Hindu and Greek sun myths within this astronomical framework, see Worthen, The Myth of Replacement, 157–231.

26. The “discovery” of precession is attributed to the astronomer Chia K'uei of the Han dynasty (a.d. 89). See the “Calendrical Treatise” (Lü-li chih ) of the Hou-Han shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1965), 11.3027Google Scholar. See also Ch'ang-hao, Li , ed., Chung-kuo t'ien-wen-hsüeh shih (Peking: K'o-hsüeh, 1981), 91–93 Google Scholar, and Hartner, Willy, “The Obliquity of the Ecliptic According to the Hou-han Shu and Ptolemy,” in Oriens-Occidens (Heldesheim: Georg Olms Verlagshuchhandulung, 1968), 208–214 Google Scholar, for discussions of this “discovery.”

27. For the use of constellations as seasonal markers, see Ch'ang-hao, Li, Chung-kuo t'ien-wen-hsüeh shih, 11–12, 16, 91–93Google Scholar; Tsun-kuei, Ch'en , Chung-kuo t'ien-wen- hsüeh shih (Shanghai: Jen-min, 1980; rpt. Taipei: Ming-wen, 1984), 182Google Scholar. For the use of Antares as a seasonal marker, see also P'ang, P'u , “‘Huo-li’ ch'u-t'an” , She-hui k'o-hsüeh chan-hsien 1978. 4, 131–137 Google Scholar; and Ecsedy, I., Barlai, K., Dvorak, R. and Schuit, R., “Antares Year in Ancient China,” in World Archaeoastronomy, ed. Aveni, A. F. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 183–186 Google Scholar.

28. The effect of the precession of the equinoxes on the seasonal (spring) position of the determinative star Antares may perhaps be seen in the attribution of differing calendrical traditions to the Hsia, Shang and Chou dynasties. See Saussure, Léopold de, Les Origines de l'Astronomie Chinoise (Paris: Librairie Orientale et Américaine, 1930), 468 n. 1Google Scholar. Hartner, Willy, “The Earliest History of the Constellations in the Near East, and the Motif of the Lion-Bull Combat,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 24 (1965), 1–16 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Oriens-Occidens, 227–259, argues that lion and bull imagery in prehistoric art points to an ancient awareness of the effects of precession.

29. Harald Reiche, “The Language of Archaic Astronomy,” 160, cited in Pankenier, David W., “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology: The ‘Mandate of Heaven’ As Epiphany” (Ph.D. diss.: Stanford University, 1983), 7 Google Scholar.

30. [Kwang-chih], Chang Kuang-chih, “Chung-kuo ch'uang-shih shen-hua chih fen-hsi yü yen-chiu” , Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, 8 (1959), 58 Google Scholar.

31. See Huai-nan-tzu, “T'ien-wen” , 80, for the most complete version of this myth. It is translated by John Major, “Origins of Chinese Science,” 5.

32. Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 8–9.

33. See the “T'an-t'ien” chapter of Lun-heng (Lun-heng chu-shih , ed. Li-shih hsi, Pei-ching ta-hsüeh [Peking: Chung-hua, 1979], 603)Google Scholar.

34. Shan-hai ching chien-shu, 421.

35. I-hsing, Hao , Erh-ya i-shu , 3 vols. (Peking: Pei-ching shu-chü, 1982), vol. 2, 4.17bGoogle Scholar.

36. See de Saussure, Les Origines de l'Astronomie Chinoise, 455.

37. Hsing-ching (Han-wei ts'ung-shu ed.), 7a.

38. One may wonder how the “northwest” figures in this configuration of northern and eastern quadrants. The northwest, I believe, refers to the location of Sagittarius and the “tail” of Scorpius in relation to the other asterisms that together comprise the constellations constituting the Cerulean Dragon and Heavenly Turtle. In Hsing Ping's Erh-ya shu , the constellations (i.e., dragon and tiger) that are associated with the eastern and western quadrants are described as having their “heads in the south and their tails in the north.” The constellations comprising the Vermillion Bird and Heavenly Turtle quadrants, however, are described as “having their heads in the west and their tails in the east.” Scorpius's tail thus occupies the nothernmost part of the eastern quadrant, while Sagittarius — the head of the turtle — occupies the westernmost part of the northern quadrant. See Schlegel, Gustav, Uranographie Chinoise, 2 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1875), 1 Google Scholar. Note especially the passage following the description of K'un-lun in the “T'ien wen” chapter of the Ch'u tz'u, where the poet writes, “The northwest opens and closes, how does the air pass through there?” The “opening and closing” refers to the transition from one solar year to the next; see Ch'u tz'u chi-chu, 57.

39. As mentioned above, certain constellations in this quadrant served as harbingers of the winter season, and even of the winter solstice in ancient China: the disappearance of the turtle asterism, Corona Australis, from the evening sky announced the arrival of winter. This asterism may have lent its name to the entire quadrant. See David Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 184.

40. de Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, 205,211,238–239.

41. The motif of turtles serving as bridges to cross large bodies of water seen frequently in Chinese literature is perhaps related to this astonomical configuration: the proximity of the Corona Australis asterism to the Celestial River and especially the “Heavenly Ford” may be the astonomical source for this imagery. Even King Mu was allegedly served by Great Turtles who aided his crossing of the Chiu River . See the entry for his thirty-seventh year in the Bamboo Annals (Chu-shu chi-nien [Ssu-pu pei-yao ed.], chüan hsia, 6a). For later examples of this motif in Chinese literature, see the Hsi-yu chi , (Rpt. Peking: Jen-min, 1980), 1246–1247 Google Scholar.

42. Huai-nan-tzu, “Lan-ming” , 207. Note that according to the commenator Liu Wen-tien , the title of this chapter, “Observing the dark and obscure,” refers to the area “where change is effected”; ibid., 191. This resonates with my interpretation that the Heavenly Turtle quadrant represents the starting point, that is, the source, of the problematic effects of precession.

43. Kirk, Geoffry S., Myth: Its Meaning and Function in Ancient and Other Cultures (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), 59 Google Scholar, who cites Lévi-Strauss, Claude, Le crut et le cuit (Paris: Librairie Pion, 1964), 346 Google Scholar.

44. See Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 208.

45. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 172, 175, 243. In Shan-hai-ching chien-shu, 347, a similar description is used to refer to a location very close to K'un-lun.

46. See, for example, the references to Kun's death at feather mountain in Ch'ü Yüan's “T'ien-wen” and “Li sao” , and the references to “feather abyss” found in the “Chin-yü” chapter of the Kuo-yü and the Shih-i-chi . All of these are provided by Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 240-242.

47. In the fourth line of the first hexagram (Ch'ien ) in the I ching, the term yüan is used to describe the portion of the sky in which the dragon constellation disappears during the winter months. See Chou I cheng-i , in Shih-san-ching chu-shu (Rpt., Peking: Chung-hua, 1979), vol. 1, 16 Google Scholar. See de Saussure, Les Origines de l'Astronomie Chinoise, 161 n. 1 and Hsia, Han-i (Edward L. Shaughnessy, ), “ Chou-i Ch'ien-kua liu-lung hsin-chieh” Wen-shih 24 (1985), 9–14 Google Scholar, for a discussion of the astronomical significance of Ch'ien's hexagram lines.

48. See Shan-hai-ching chien-shu, 438, where the commentator Kuo P'u cites the Bamboo Annals account of Chuan Hsü's “producing” (ch'an ) Kun in his thirty-first year; see Chu-shu chi-nien, chitan shang, 1b. See also the Shih-pen (Pai-pu ts'ung- shu chi-ch'eng ed.), 4.3a. For a full discussion of the relationship between Chuan Hsü and Kun, see Tarō, Moriyasu , “Kon U genshi” , Kyōto joshi daigaku jinbun ronshū , 9 (1964), 1–22 Google Scholar, rpt. in Kōtei kyō densetsu (Kyoto: Kyoto joshi daigaku linbun gakkai, 1970), 41–62 Google Scholar. For the astrological associations of Chuan Hsü, see Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 9, 180,193 n. 30.

49. See de Saussure, Les Origines de l'Astronomie Chinoise, 449, where he cites the Tso-chuan and the Erh-ya as sources pointing to the celestial association between Chuan Hsii's grave site and the lunar station Hsü.

50. See Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise, 217–225. The latter quote comes from Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 9.

51. Porée-Maspero, Rites Agraires, 786–787, cited in Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism, 173. See also Saussure, Léopold de, “L'étymologie du nom des monts K'ouen-louen,” T'oungpao 20 (1921), 370–371 Google Scholar.

52. For the symbolism of the act of shooting arrows, see Eberhard, Wolfram, The Local Cultures of South and East China (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968), 44–66 Google Scholar; Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism, 188. That both King Mu and Yü are credited with congregating all of the (feudal) lords at T'u Mountain, an action that traditionally symbolized the universal acknowledgment of one's legitimacy to rule, concretizes, at least textually, the implied connection between the Great Yü's achievement and King Mu's (desire). For Yü's and King Mu's congregation, see the entry under the fourth year of Duke Chao's reign, Tso chuan, (Shih-san-ching chu-shu ed.) vol. 2, 2035. The associations with political legitimacy of the congregation is implied in the Tso-chuan passage. The importance of these political associations for our understanding of the literary significance of K'un-lun mountain in the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan will be addressed below.

53. See the excerpts from the Shang shu , Kuo-yü, and the Ch'u-tz'u cited in Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 241.

54. See the excerpts from the Shan-hai-ching and the Huai-nan-tzu cited in Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 239.

55. Cited from the Shang shu, in Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui-pien, 241.

56. In ancient genealogies such as the Shih-pen, Kun is attributed with the invention of the city wall —a construct that is intended as much to preserve what is within the boundary as it is to prevent outside intrusion. See the Shih-pen, “Tso p'ien” , 1.23a.

57. Yang K'uan has the most detailed explication of how he arrived at this conclusion. See the section entitled “Kun Kung-kung yü Hsüan-ming Feng-i” , of his “Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun” , in Ku-shih-pien , 7 vols., ed. Chieh-kang, Ku (Shanghai: Shang-hai ku-chi, 1926–1941), vol. 7, 329–344Google Scholar.

58. See the citation from the Kuo-yü, in Yüan K'o, Chung-kuo shen-hua tzu-liao ts'ui- pien, 242, and especially the terminology used to describe the northern celestial quadrant: “The northern palace is the place where the numinous turtle (i.e., the Heavenly Turtle or, more specifically, Corona Australis) submerges and hides.” Cited in Schlegel, Uragnographie, 62.

59. See the Tso chuan, vol. 2,2049.

60. Akatsuka Kiyoshi identifies the drawings of tortoises on Shang dynasty bronze inscriptions as Kun; see “Kon U to Indai dōban no ki ryū zuzū” , Kodaigaku 11.4 (1964), 273–301 Google Scholar. Moriyasu, “Kon U genshi,” 43–45 also emphasizes the watery origins of Kun.

61. Moriyasu, “Kon U genshi,” 48. Lai, Whalen, “Symbolism of Evil in China: The K'ung-chia Myth Analyzed,” History of Religions 24.4 (1984), 378 Google Scholar, states that during the Three Dynasties period the earthly Feather Mountain served as a site for the autumnal sacrifice.

62. Shan-hai-ching chien-shu, 479; Tso-chuan, vol. 2, 2049.

63. Moriyasu, “Kon U genshi,” 55, cites the “Shang-hsien” chapter of the Mo tzu , where there is a note concerning “Feather Suburb.” It is stated that this place is “the place where the warmth of the sun does not reach” (je chao wu you chi yeh ). See, too, Shizuka, Shirakawa , Chung-kuo ti shen-hua , trans. Wang, Hsiao-lian (Taipei: Ch'ang-an, 1983), 44 Google Scholar, where he argues that the transformation of Chuan Hsü and Kun, and Yü's appearance in myths accord with the changing of the seasons.

64. This is based on Bernhard Karlgren's reconstruction of archaic Chinese pronunciation. See Grammatica Serica Recensa (Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1972), #417, #419, #470Google Scholar. For other analyses of linguistic implications of K'un-lun, see de Saussure, “Étymologie,” 370; and Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism, 201, 203.

65. Boodberg, Peter, “Some Propleptical Remarks on the Evolution of Archaic Chinese,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 2 (1937), 337,356CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66. Boodberg, “Some Propleptical Remarks,” 356.

67. Boodberg, “Some Proleptical Remarks,” 370, n. 90, sees the name of the mountain rammed into by Kung-kung, Pu-chou (*Pau — tsaug), as an example of “semantic individualization,” whereby the (more ancient pronunciation of the) verb ch'u , “to ram,” which contained the complex glottological phoneme *BTSI ω OK, evolved into this compound (p. 404). See also William Boltz's discussion of the mythic figure Kung-kung's name in terms of the etymon hung, “flood;” “Kung-kung and the Flood: Reverse Euhemerization in the Yao Tien,” T'oung Pao 67.3–5 (1981), 141–153 Google Scholar.

68. I recognize the limitations of this simplistic definition but I believe that it is warranted by the direction of my discussion. For a nuanced and sophisticated discussion of the conception of chaos in early Chinese thought, see Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism.

69. Ling Ch'un-sheng argues that the name K'un-lun was a transliteration of the term “ziggurat,” and that the “tiered” structure of K'un-lun was a motif introduced into China from Babylon during the third millennium B.C. He also argues that the “hanging garden” image of K'un-lun seen in the T'ien-wen poem refers to the great garden of Babylon. See Ch'un-sheng, Ling, “Chung-kuo ti feng-shan yü liang-ho liu-yü ti k'un-lun wen-hua” , Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology 19 (1965), 1–52 Google Scholar.

70. There is an interesting line in Ch'ü Yüan's “T'ien wen” in which appears the image of a turtle carrying a (sacred) mountain on its back:

“The Great turtle carries a great mountain on its back [in order to] put it together [with something] to make a whole; what will the turtle use to stabilize it (the mountain)?”

The resonance between this imagery and the celestial associations between Kun and K'un-lun that I have just illustrated are noteworthy. See Ch'u tz'u chi-chu, 61. For other examples of turtle and mountain imagery in traditional texts see Yoshihiko, Izushi , “Jōdai Chūgoku no ‘kyoki fuzan’ setsuwa no yūrai ni tsuite” , Chūgoku shinwa densetsu no kenkyū (Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha, 1943), 323–343 Google Scholar. See also the engraving on a pillar at the Yi'nan tomb in Shantung, dating from the second century a.d., on which is carved a picture of a tortoise upholding a three-tiered K'un-lun mountain; see Hung, Wu, The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chinese Pictorial Art (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), 120, fig. 49Google Scholar.

71. The astonomical/cosmological association that I am delineating is, I believe, also implied in the relationship between the first two hexagrams in the Book of Changes. It is not perhaps so coincidental that the phonetic reconstruction of the name of the second hexagram K'un (k'wan) is virtually identical to that of Kun. If the first hexagram of the classic, Ch'ien, is an account of the seasonal behavior of the Dragon constellation, does it not follow that Kun/k'un is the abyssal, watery parent figure? That Ch'ien in its other reading means “dry,” and thus represents the cosmogonic significance of Yü's accomplishment of draining the flood waters, suggests that we also read the astro- nomical/cosmogonic connotations embedded in the wet/chaos associations of Kun/k'un. I am grateful to David Pankenier for helping me clarify this point.

72. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 87.

73. See Pankenier, David, “Astronomical Dates in Shang and Western Zhou,” Early China 7 (1981–82), 19 Google Scholar. See also Allan, The Shape of the Turtle, 50.

74. For the myth concerning Chuan Hsü's mother, see Chu-shu chi-nien, 2.1a. For Chuan Hsü's birth at Juo waters, see ibid., and Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu (Chu-tzu chi-ch'eng ed.), 6.52

75. The latter graph as it appears in the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan is actually a composite of the graph for sun and that of “to stop,” or “rest” (chih — suggesting that concrete expression of the concept of time can only be achieved through spatial terms. As we shall see below, this is an issue of great relevance for understanding the narrative strategies employed in the text.

76. Kuo P'u claimed mo-pai refers to a form of Buddhist greeting; cited in Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 80. T'an Ts'ui accepted this; Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chu-shu, 3.3a. Ku Shih argues that the graph mo is a loan for the graph p'ai , “to clap,” or “to beat,” and thus reads the term as a reference to a “Western” form of ritualistic bowing. This reading, although convincing, could not appy to the other uses of the term mo — i.e., mo-chi (“mo-type grain”) and mo-chin (a name of a tree on K'un-lun). Compare Ting Ch'ien's reading of Hsi-wang-mu as an “elongated” version of the place name Hsi-mo (“Sumer”); Mu t'ien-tzu chuan ti-li k'ao-cheng, 2.8a.

77. Meng-chia, Ch'en, , “Ku-wen-tzu chung chih Shang Chou chi-ssu” , Yen-ching hstieh-pao 19 (1936), 91–155 Google Scholar, and Ch'ung-i, Wen —, “Chiu-ko chung Ho-po chih yen-chiu” , Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology 9 (1960), 143 Google Scholar, have both suggested that mention of “river” (ho ) in oracle-bone inscriptions does not necessarily only refer to the Yellow River. I would extend this to suggest that the term “river” does not necessarily refer to earthly rivers. De Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, 197ff, argue that the sacred rivers of ancient civilizations are the earthly continuation of the Milky Way, and that a confusion between the rivers of heaven and those on earth is a common factor of many myths. Compare the association between “river” and “ancestor” (tsung ) which appears at the beginning of the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, and which suggests a link between the river and the realm of the dead. I will argue elsewhere that this association is crucial for our understanding of Ho-tsung Po Yao's mythic function in the text.

78. There is much paleographical and even some literary evidence that reveals the Chou court to have been in constant military and even political upheaval. For the military, see Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History, 177 et passim; for political instability see Shaughnessy, Edward L., “The Duke of Zhou's Retirement in the East and the Beginnings of the Minister-Monarch Debate in Chinese Political Philosophy,” Early China 18 (1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Shaughnessy, Edward L., “Historical Geography and the Extent of the Earliest Chinese Kingdoms,” Asia Major II.2 (1989), 1–22 Google Scholar; and Han-yi, Hsia (Shaughnessy, Edward L.), “Ts'ung Chü-fu hsü-kai ming-wen t' an Chou wang-ch'ao yü Nan Huai I ti kuan-hsi” , Han-hsüeh yen-chiu 5 (1987), 567–573 Google Scholar.

79. King Chao was not attacked; he was engaging in what would be the last of several military expeditions against the Ch'u. Some scholars believe that these expeditions were motivated by the search for precious metals in the South. See, for example, the bronze inscription of the Kuo-po kuei , which explicitly links an attack on Ch'u with the finding of metals. See Mo-jo, Kuo , Liang-Chou chin-wen-tz'u ta-hsi t'u-lu k'ao-shih , 2d rev. ed. (Peking: K'o-hsüeh, 1957), 54 Google Scholar. Lan, T'ang , “Hsi-Chou t'ung-ch'i tuan-tai chung K'ang-kung wen-t'i” , K'ao-ku hsüeh-pao 1962.1, 37 Google Scholar, and Hsi-kuei, Ch'iu , “Shih Ch'iang p'an ming chieh-shih” Wen-wu 1978.3, 27 Google Scholar, also discuss King Chao's desire for metals as a motivation for attacking Ch'u. This desire for material wealth is reflected in the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan: King Mu's journey is in part motivated by the desire to obtain the “riches” (pao ) of Ch'ung Mountain.

80. For inscriptional evidence of this insecurity, see, for example, the Tung kuei , which recounts a barbarian attack that came very close to the seat of Chou political control. Shaugnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History, 177–181, provides a translation and analysis of the historical and political significance of this inscription. See also Hsi-kuei, Ch'iu, “Lun Tung kuei ti liang-ko ti-ming—Yü-lin ho Hu” Ku-wen-tzu lun-chi , K'ao-ku yü wen-wu ts'ung-k'an 2 (1983), 4–7 Google Scholar.

81. For general discussions of the “Heavenly Mandate,” see Creel, Herlee, The Origins of Statecraft in China, Volume One: The Western Chou Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 83 Google Scholar et passim; Chün-i, T'ang, “The T'ien Ming (Heavenly Ordinance) in Pre-Ch'in China,” Philosophy East and West 11(1961), 195–218 Google Scholar; 12 (1962), 29–49; Cho-yun, Hsu and Linduff, Katheryn M., Western Chou Civilization (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 101–106, 318–320, 382–383Google Scholar.

82. Pankenier, “Astronomical Dates,” 4–5.

83. I want to underline that what concerns me here is the literary manifestation and resolution of this conflict and not its socio-historical ramifications. For the latter, see Sarah Allan's The Heir and the Sage, where she provides a brilliant analysis of the social function of several myths as mediators of this inherent political tension (rule by hereditary right and rule by virtue) in five crucial periods of Chinese history.

84. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 33.

85. Saso, Michael, “What is the Ho-t'u? ” History of Religions 17.3–4 (1978), 411 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Compare the use of jewel terminology to refer to the positions of the planets or asterisms, discussed in Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 246.

86. The first quote is cited in Saso, “What is the Ho-t'u,” 410, and comes from the Ho-t'u chiang-hsiang . The second is cited in Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 315, and comes from the text K'ao-ling-yao .

87. Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 316.

88. Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 316. See also Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise, 207.

89. Ch'eng Feng-heng provides a list of precedents for opening up charts; Mu t'ien-tzu chuan chu pu-cheng, 1.24a. There seems to have been some connection between the “River Chart” and the “Yellow Steed” (ch'eng-huang ) which Ho-po mounts “to lead the way for the Son of Heaven and exhaust the Western lands.” The Mo-tzu contains a reference to both: “The river manifested the Green Chart, the land manifested the Yellow Steed.” Ku Shih states that the Yellow Steed was necessary to “execute ancient rites,” but he doesn't offer much explanation as to why; Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 40–41. It is interesting to note that Hsi-wang-mu is also mentioned in a passage concerning the Yellow Steed: “In the time of Shun, Hsi-wang-mu commanded an envoy to present a set of four yellow steeds to him;” cited from Chin-lou-tzu hsing-wang p'ien , in Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 41.

90. See Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 82,96.

91. Karlgren, Grammatica Serica Recensa, #964.

92. Boodberg, “Some Proleptical Remarks,” 350. Compare de Saussure's discussion of the symbolic significance of the “heavenly branch” tzu , which he argues designates the precise instant of the winter solstice and midnight, and thus symbolizes, both temporally and spatially, rebirth or regeneration; see his Les Origines de l'Astronomie Chinoise, 278.

93. See Kuo-yü (Shanghai: Shang-hai ku-chi, 1978), 138 Google Scholar. I am indebted to David Pankenier for pointing out the significance of this passage for my analysis. For his discussion of the passage, see “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 179ff, esp. 186–188.

94. Kuo-yü, 138.

95. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 50.

96. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 50.

97. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 91.

98. In ancient China, as in other ancient societies, the past was preserved almost entirely by oral transmission and oral tradition. See Wang, C.H., The Bell and the Drum: Shih Ching as Formulaic Poetry in an Oral Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974)Google Scholar, and Kunst, Richard, “The Original ‘Yi Jing’: A Text, Phonetic Transcription, Translation, and Indexes, With Sample Glosses” (Ph.D. diss.: University of California, 1985), 62–82 Google Scholar, for examples of how even the Chinese classics are viewed as representing part of an oral tradition.

99. See Yu, Anthony, “History, Fiction, and the Reading of Chinese History,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews 10.1–2 (1988), 1–19 Google Scholar.

100. Both Rémi Mathieu, Le Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, 198, and William Nienhauser, “Origins of Chinese Literature,” 201, have noted that the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan is the earliest extant piece of Chinese narrative that deals with the experience of just one human hero.

101. The frequency with which this term is used attests to its important function within the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan: it is used to introduce supplemental information at least thirty times throughout the text. See Mathieu, Le Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, 265–266, which provides a concordance for the occurrence of this particle. Mathieu also comments on the oral origins of the King Mu story; p. 113.

102. See Pankenier, “Early Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology,” 103–145, 148 n. 12. Pankenier believes the visitation of King Mu to the “Red Crow” tribe, whose people are hailed as descendants of the Chou royal lineage, implies that the Red Crow had a totemic significance for the royal lineage of Chou.

103. The repetition of the phrase “the origin of the Chou lineage” (literally: “that which controlled the Chou lineage” [i wei Chou shih chu ]) two pages later, again in an effort to identify a location/tribe with reference to its relevance to the Chou court further supports this contention.

104. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 21. Rémi Mathieu has counted forty-four occurrences of this construction in the first four chapters of the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan; Le Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, 269. Wei Chü-hsien argues that the use of this construction marks the Mu t'ien-tzu chuan as a Warring States text; “Mu t'ien-tzu chuan ti yen-chiu,” 199.

105. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 53, 72, 109; 203.

106. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 26, 72, 89, 163.

107. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 126.

108. Claude Lévi-Strauss has suggested that activities of naming and identifying—the demarcation of objective knowledge—were an essential process for ancient societies trying to establish their own identity; see La pensée sauvage (Paris: Librairie Pion, 1962), 5 Google Scholar.

109. De Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, 8, 47, 49, 145, 154, 201 et passim, discuss how the “dimension of Heaven is time,” and how when myths speak of measures “it is always some form of Time that provides them.” See, also, Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise, 186–192, where there is a long discussion of the symbolic significance of the asterism Chien-t'ai , located in the Heavenly Turtle quadrant, which he believes was the celestial meausure of time and the predecessor of the water clock.

110. See Ku Shih, Mm t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 50, 72, 89, for the use of the term “later generations” both in King Mu's own speech and with reference to the motivations of his actions. See, too, de Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, 145, where the authors posit the precession of the equinoxes as a paradigmatic pattern of fate.

111. See Fabian, Johannes, Time and the Other (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983)Google Scholar, and Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973)Google Scholar, “Introduction,” for discussions of this notion.

112. For example, the fiefs given to barbarian tribes, cited above, can be seen in this way. In addition, he has his feet washed in animal milk (Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 237); drinks the blood of a horse to revive himself (218); he also accepts two daughters presented to him by Ch'i , the chief of the “Red Crow” tribe (99). Compare Eliade's comment that “Settlement in a new, unknown, uncultivated country is equivalent to an act of Creation”; Cosmos and History, 10.

113. Mathieu, Le Mu t'ien-tzu chuan, 176, discusses the political and ideological ramifications of controlling space.

114. See Chin-wen ku-lin , ed. Fa-kao, Chou (Hongkong: Chinese University Press, 1974), 11.38Google Scholar.

115. See Graham, A.C., “The Date and Composition of the Lieh-tzu,” Asia Major 8(1961), 139–198 Google Scholar.

116. See de Santillana and von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, 288–325, where they interpret the Gilgamesh epic as the locus classicus for this motif in later historical and literary works of the West.

117. Ku Shih, Mu t'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu, 45.

118. See Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise, 171–172, 178, 185, 186–192, 227 (measurer/judge of life) et passim.