Comparing Maogusi Culture with Chu Culture
Section 2: Comparing Maogusi Culture with Chu Culture. Maogusi is a Tujia ethnic culture, yet not an isolated phenomenon—it is deeply tied to ancient Chu culture. Chu culture is the distinctive cultural legacy created by the ancient Chu people.
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Section Two: Comparison between Maogusi Culture and Chu Culture
Maogusi culture is a kind of ethnic-group culture of the Tujia people, but it is not an isolated cultural phenomenon either; it has countless ties with the Chu culture of ancient China. What is Chu culture? Chu culture "is a kind of cultural relic created by the ancient Chu people of China with its own characteristics." "This kind of cultural relic has a certain time range, a certain spatial range, a certain ethnic affiliation range, and a certain cultural characteristic connotation. Among these four aspects, the certain cultural characteristic connotation is the most important." Su Bingqi pointed out specifically at the Second Annual Meeting of the Chinese Archaeological Society: "Chu culture is the culture of 'Chu.' This 'Chu' has four mutually related yet mutually distinct concepts: first, the geographical concept; second, the state concept; third, the ethnic concept; fourth, the cultural concept... We cannot simply say that the culture of Chu territory, Chu state, and Chu ethnic group is Chu culture. Because the first three change with time. It can be said that the foundation of Chu culture is quite substantial. The Wuling mountain area where the ancestors of the Tujia people lived was precisely within the territory of the Chu state. Chu culture and the Tujia culture that has been passed down to this day are, to some extent, continuous in one line. In particular, Qu Yuan's Chu Ci has countless ties with Tujia culture. The Chu culture in Chu Ci and Tujia culture share the same genetic factors. Looking through the relevant chapters of Chu Ci and the words and phrases in some chapters, all have natural connections with Tujia culture. Especially the points of connection and similarity between Maogusi culture and Chu Ci are found everywhere.
As early as the Eastern Han period, the Chu Ci scholar Wang Yi affirmed very definitely that Qu Yuan personally saw and experienced Maogusi and some ancient cultures of the Tujia people. He boldly said in his explanation of the title of Jiu Ge: "In former times, between the southern Ying towns of the Chu state and the regions of Yuan and Xiang, the customs believed in ghosts and loved sacrifices. Their sacrifices always included music and drum dancing to please the various gods. When Qu Yuan was exiled and hid in that region, bearing sorrow and bitter suffering, his grieving thoughts seethed within him. Going out and seeing the sacrificial rites of the common people and the joy of song and dance, whose words were crude and vulgar, he accordingly composed the songs of Jiu Ge." Wang Yi's passage is not long in words, but what it contains is not little. To summarize, its essentials include the following five points:
First, it delineated the geographical scope in which the "Nine Songs" originated, namely between the Xiang and Yuan rivers, which happens to be the region inhabited by the Tujia people of Xiangxi (though other brother ethnic groups also lived and thrived here, of course).
Second, it affirmed that the customs and habits of the Tujia region at that time were that "its people believe in ghosts and are fond of shrines (sacrifices). Their shrines (sacrifices) must involve songs, music, drums, and dances to please the gods." In other words, the local Tujia people believed in gods and shamanism, and their belief in gods and shamanism had to be accompanied by singing, drumming, and dancing. These are completely consistent with the scenes and content of the Tujia "Hand-Waving Dance" and the performance of "Maogusi."
Third, "Qu Yuan was exiled and hid himself among them, harboring sorrow and bitter poison, his melancholy thoughts seething and pent-up, and he went out and saw the sacrificial rites of the common people." Among these, the phrase "went out and saw the sacrificial rites of the common people" is extremely important—that is, during his exile, Qu Yuan personally witnessed the "Hand-Waving Dance" and "Maogusi" performed by the ancestors of the Tujia people. This sentence has always been overlooked by scholars of Chu Ci and experts in ancient pre-Qin literature. In fact, this sentence is the finishing touch and the most brilliantly stated point. In modern academic terms, Qu Yuan conducted fieldwork in the Tujia region at that time. His "Nine Songs" originated from local actual life, and its original material can be found in real life. The "Nine Songs" were not something Qu Yuan fabricated or created out of thin air on a whim of personal imagination.
Fourth, "the music of songs and dances, their words are vulgar and crude." In other words, the characteristics of the Tujia "Tima," "Hand-Waving Dance," and "Maogusi" are that they involve both singing and dancing, and the content of the lyrics is very coarse. To this day, the Tujia "Tima," "Hand-Waving Dance," and "Maogusi" and their lyrics still contain much vulgar content.
Fifth, "therefore he composed the songs of the 'Nine Songs.'" This very clearly points out that Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs" were formed based on the lyrics of the Tujia "Tima Songs," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi," after Qu Yuan's adaptation, processing, and re-creation.
Wang Yi's brilliant insights above are not an isolated case. The "Book of Han" also records: "The Chu region believes in shamans and ghosts and emphasizes excessive sacrifices." The "Book of Sui" also records: "Jingzhou especially emphasizes shrine sacrifices. Qu Yuan composed the 'Nine Songs,' and it is probably from this." It is just that the records in these two historical works are not as vivid and specific as Wang Yi's. But both historians noticed the folk customs of the ancestors of the Tujia people, the principal ethnic group in the Wuling Mountain area at that time.
By the Song Dynasty, the great Song scholar Zhu Xi also made some very objective statements in his explanation of the title of "Nine Songs" in his "Collected Annotations on Chu Ci." He said: "Formerly, in the towns of southern Ying in Chu, between the Yuan and Xiang rivers, the custom was to believe in ghosts and be fond of sacrifices. Their sacrifices must have shamans and sorcerers make music, singing and dancing to entertain the gods. The crude customs of the Man and Jing regions—their words were already vulgar—and moreover, between yin and yang, humans and ghosts, there could not but be some mixture of irreverence, licentiousness, and excess. After Qu Yuan was exiled, he saw this and was moved by it, so he considerably revised and settled their words, removing what was excessive."
In this explanation of the title, Zhu Xi's first sentence, "Formerly, in the towns of southern Ying in Chu, between the Yuan and Xiang rivers, the custom was to believe in ghosts and be fond of sacrifices," explains the region where the "Nine Songs" originated and the local customs and habits, no different from Wang Yi's—it also copies Wang Yi. From another perspective, it also shows that Zhu Xi approved of Wang Yi's viewpoint. Then in what follows, Zhu Xi has some different views. For example: "Their sacrifices must have shamans and sorcerers make music." This sentence is also a key point, a supplement to Wang Yi's statement: "must have shamans and sorcerers make music, singing and dancing to entertain the gods." It means that during sacrifices, shamans and sorcerers must participate and preside—equivalent to how today's Tujia, when performing "Tima," dancing the "Hand-Waving Dance," and performing "Maogusi," all require the altar master (Tima) to preside over the altar. Because only the altar master can converse with the gods; others cannot enjoy this privilege. As mentioned earlier, the Tima is the shaman of the Tujia people, specifically called Tima by the Tujia. On this point, Zhu Xi's understanding advanced one step further on the basis of Wang Yi's understanding. Zhu Xi then said: "The crude customs of the Man and Jing regions—their words were already vulgar." This point is largely the same as Wang Yi's view, but the following phrase, "and moreover, between yin and yang, there could not but be some mixture of irreverence, licentiousness, and excess," shows that Zhu Xi recognized that these special local customs (that is, "their words were already vulgar") were a special local need—that the locality specifically required such vulgar language. However, Zhu Xi did not probe deeply into this issue; as a Neo-Confucian scholar, it was impossible for him to conduct deep-level research in an explanation of the title of a poem. Still, it was already quite good that Zhu Xi could say such things at the time. Zhu Xi also said: "After Qu Yuan was exiled, he saw this and was moved by it." The word "saw" in this sentence vividly and graphically shows that Qu Yuan truly saw these ritual activities of the Tujia ancestors—the "Tima," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi." This is another repetition and affirmation of Wang Yi's statement, and also an evaluation of Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs" by Zhu Xi from a high vantage point, objectively and fairly. Finally, Zhu Xi said: "So he considerably revised and settled their words, removing what was excessive." This is correct. "Considerably revised and settled their words" indicates that Qu Yuan deleted quite a lot of the original content of the "Tima Songs," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi." The lyrics of the "Tima Songs," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi" are lengthy; the "Tima" songs alone take three days and three nights to sing, and without some abridgment it would not do. It can be said that Qu Yuan not only deleted but condensed again and again. It is just like how scientists extract uranium from ore—extracting only a few grams of uranium from several tons of ore is the same principle. Those lengthy words and sentences and extremely vulgar expressions in the "Tima Songs," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi," if not deleted, could not be presented in refined company. Qu Yuan processed and polished the original lyrics, forming the immortal work "Chu Ci." Qu Yuan's processing and abridgment made "Chu Ci" the greatest and most magnificent poetic masterpiece in the history of pre-Qin Chinese literature.
Zhu Xi also made some relatively objective explanations in linguistics. In his "Dialectical Analysis of Chu Ci," he said: "In the various pieces of 'Nine Songs,' the words for guest, host, that person, and I are the most difficult to distinguish. Old interpretations often confuse them." Eastern Han Wang Yi had long discovered this problem. In his explanation of the title of "Nine Songs," he said: "Therefore their literary meaning differs, and the chapters and sentences are mixed and disordered, thus broadening the different meanings." These two scholars of Chu Ci relatively accurately described some characteristics of the Tujia language, because the "Tima Songs," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi" were all sung by Tujia ancestors in the Tujia language. The word order of Tujia is different from that of Chinese; Tujia word order generally places the object before the verb. For example, "eat rice" in Tujia would be said as "rice eat." The Chinese dialects in Tujia regions today often follow this pattern, and there are also not a few cases where the subject is placed in the middle of the sentence. For example, "I am in the room" in Tujia would be said as "room I in." Because what Qu Yuan heard and saw were all lyrics in the Tujia language, it was inevitable that traces of Tujia would remain when he later created "Chu Ci." For example, in Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions," which should properly be "Questioning Heaven," Qu Yuan used the object-before-verb inverted sentence pattern—that is, Qu Yuan was influenced by Tujia word order and flexibly applied it to his own works. A great writer constantly draws linguistic material from social life to add multidimensional color to his works. In this respect, Qu Yuan is also a model for us in the use of language.
What Qu Yuan heard and saw were all lyrics in the Tujia language, so it was inevitable that traces of Tujia would remain when he later created his work "Chu Ci." This is only natural. In addition, Zhu Xi, as a Neo-Confucian scholar and an orthodox high-level intellectual of the Song Dynasty, did not understand the content of Qu Yuan's works very well and even had some misunderstandings. For example, when commenting on "Mountain Spirit," he said: "The piece 'Mountain Spirit' has the most erroneous explanations, too many to refute. And to take the 'young gentleman' as Zijiao is especially laughable." What is laughable here is not "Shan Gui," nor is it Qu Yuan, but rather Zhu Xi himself. Because he simply did not understand the customs of the Tujia people. Shan Gui is in fact the goddess Meichang, whom the Tujia people still revere to this day. This Meichang goddess of the Tujia is a woman who wears no clothes and wraps herself in leaves to cover her body, because her clothes were torn to shreds by thorns and shrubs in the mountains during a hunt. That is why the Tujia people always worship Meichang in the dead of night. When worshipping Meichang, one must not speak vulgar words or relieve oneself, otherwise it would be disrespectful to Meichang and would bring about her displeasure. How could Zhu Xi, who dwelled high in the halls of power, have known about this custom of the Tujia people? It would actually have been strange if he had not made such a comment. In fact, in the "Shan Gui" section, Qu Yuan portrayed the Tujia goddess Meichang with vivid authenticity, making her the most vividly depicted female figure in the entire Jiu Ge."/p"
In addition, Zhu Xi also made subjectivist errors when evaluating the entire "Nine Songs." In his "Dialectical Analysis of Chu Ci," he said: "The songs of Chu customs' shrine sacrifices cannot now be heard." This shows that Zhu Xi had never been to Xiangxi, much less seen the "Tima Songs," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi" in remote Tujia mountain villages. He drew conclusions based solely on his own subjective feelings. However, Zhu Xi also had a side where he was right. Right after saying this, he continued: "Yet considering them, some use yin shamans to summon yang gods, or use yang hosts to receive yin ghosts, so their words are irreverent, licentious, and excessive, often to the point of being unspeakable." Zhu Xi still wrote with penetrating insight about the ritual activities of the Tujia shaman Tima descending to the underworld. This left later generations with an eternal unsolvable mystery, because Zhu Xi's self-contradictions when commenting on "Chu Ci" are everywhere.
In "Summoning the Soul," Qu Yuan said: "The Emperor told Wu Yang, saying: 'There is a man below; I wish to aid him. His soul and spirit have scattered; you divine and give it back to him.'" In "Summoning the Soul," Qu Yuan so clearly and unmistakably says that he himself is Wu Yang that it is no wonder Mr. Zhang Zhengming said, "Qu Yuan was a great shaman." Or perhaps Qu Yuan himself once presided over sacrificial activities like the "Tima Songs," "Hand-Waving Songs," and "Maogusi." If Qu Yuan had not had such personal experience, it would have been very difficult for him to write these poems rich in ethnic flavor.
Below is a brief comparative analysis of the use of Maogusi-related phenomena in Qu Yuan's works.
1. Descriptions in Qu Yuan's works similar to Maogusi attire
We know that Maogusi's attire is very peculiar: the whole body is draped in grass and leaves. Similar costumed dances have been recorded in Chinese classical texts. For example, in the Spring and Autumn period, a kind of feather dance was transmitted in the north; in the feather dance, performers covered their whole bodies with bird feathers. The "Bei Feng" section of the "Book of Songs" records: "Simple and grand, simple and grand, they are about to perform the Wan dance." Mao's commentary: "Using shields and feathers for the Wan dance, it is used for ancestral temples and mountains and rivers." Mao's meaning is: "Dances decorated with shields (ancient shields) and decorated with feathers are collectively called the Wan dance. They are used to sacrifice to ancestral temples and mountains and rivers." Chen Huan's commentary and subcommentary: "The shield dance is the martial dance; the feather dance is the civil dance. Calling it Wan is also naming it by combining the two dances." Chen's meaning is: "The shield dance is the martial dance, the feather dance is the civil dance; the reason they are called Wan is that the two together are given the name of the dance." Strictly speaking, the "shield" of the "shield dance" is a prop, while the "feather" of the "feather dance" is the costume. Dancing adorned with bird feathers is certainly very peculiar, but there are also many such examples in foreign countries. For example, in today's Russian ballet "Swan Lake," the performers use goose-feather decorations. Maogusi's use of grass as costume and its complete performance mode have been especially precious and peculiar from ancient times to the present. But in Qu Yuan's writing, through his processing, Maogusi's attire is not simply grass and leaves, but also fresh flowers. In modern popular creative terminology, this is "originating from life, yet higher than life." As Fedorenko said: "Qu Yuan's achievement lies in this: he organically fused folk creation with his own artistic conception and with his own creative understanding and observation of the surrounding world." In "Li Sao," Qu Yuan wrote: "I wear Jiangli and Pizhi, and string autumn orchids as pendants." Among these, Jiangli and Pizhi are both fresh flowers. How beautiful and elegant it is to wear these things on one's body! In "Li Sao" he also wrote: "Mixing Shenjiao and JunGui, how could it be only stringing Huiju?" Among these, Shenjiao and Huiju are unique to the Wuling Mountain area. These two spices are especially abundantly produced in Longshan, Xiangxi. To this day, the people of Longshan like to use these things as cooking seasonings. Hui and Ju are two fragrant herbs commonly growing in the Youshui River basin, and they are also prescriptions often used by Tujia Tima to treat others. In "Li Sao" he also wrote: "I grasp the root of the tree to bind Ju, and thread the fallen stamens of Bili. I straighten JunGui to string orchids, and twist Hu rope in long strands." Bili and orchid are common fragrant flowers in the Wuling Mountain area. Qu Yuan also gave a certain description in "Master of Fate": "Garments of lotus, belt of Hui, suddenly coming and suddenly passing away." He added another queen among flowers—the lotus. In "Mountain Spirit" he wrote: "I break stone orchids and wear Duheng, pluck fragrant blossoms and leave them for the one I long for." Duheng, called horse-hoof fragrance by people in the Wuling Mountain area, is also a fragrant plant. All of these show Qu Yuan describing Maogusi's decorations to an intoxicating degree. This is where the poet stands above others. In "Li Sao" he also wrote: "My high cap towers loftily, my long pendants dangle in confusion." What is this high cap? It happens to be the same as Maogusi's attire. Today, when some Tujia mountain villages in Longshan County and Yongshun County perform Maogusi, they wear a hat made of bound grass (a cone shape) on the head, and then tie three grass whips on top, about two chi long, towering high, looking perilously lofty. How vividly Qu Yuan portrayed this attire! What is the "long pendant" Qu Yuan speaks of? The "long pendant" is the sand knife often carried by Maogusi during slash-and-burn farming. The front of the sand knife is crescent-shaped, the whole knife is about 30 centimeters long, and it is also fitted with a 50-centimeter-long wooden handle. To this day, Tujia people carry sand knives whether going up the mountain to work or to hunt. Whether or not it is useful, they carry it—this has become a Tujia habit.
So, is there any connection between these fragrant herbs and flowers described by Qu Yuan and Maogusi's attire? The answer is definitely yes! In fact, the essence of Maogusi's attire is mao (grass). Moreover, the grass is mostly fragrant mao, highlighting the word "fragrant." In "Li Sao," Qu Yuan clearly wrote: "The times are tangled and changing, how can I stay long? Orchids and angelicas have changed and are no longer fragrant; sweet flag and Hui have turned into mao." That is to say, the colorful attire made of fragrant flowers and herbs will inevitably change and cannot be retained for long; orchids and angelicas also lose their fragrance, and sweet flag and Hui all turn into grass. This restores the true appearance of Maogusi's attire—that is, no matter how colorful the decoration, it must return to its original state. Belinsky said: "A true artist naturally possesses the nationality of the people; he first feels nationality within himself. Therefore, involuntarily, he leaves the mark of nationality on his works."
2. Qu Yuan's descriptions of Maogusi food and drink
The content expressed by Maogusi is the production and life scenes of humanity's early childhood. The life of humanity's early childhood is fully embodied in it. In the Maogusi performance there is a dialogue, namely the dialogue between the altar master Tima and the old Maogusi (Papuka).
Tima: What do you eat?
Papuka: We eat palm tree seeds.
Tima: What do you drink?
Papuka: We drink rock-marrow water (water flowing out from inside rocks).
Although the dialogue between the altar master Tima and the old Maogusi (Papuka) is not long, it depicts the culture contained in Maogusi quite completely. Among these, palm tree seeds are the general representative of all the wild fruits gathered by the Tujia ancestors, the Maogusi, at that time, while rock-marrow water is the representative of all the drinking water of the Maogusi at that time. In "Li Sao," Qu Yuan said: "In the morning I drink the falling dew of magnolia; in the evening I eat the fallen petals of autumn chrysanthemum." "I break jade branches as delicacies, and refine jade powder as provisions." Qu Yuan was a genius poet; something originally rough and wildly flavored, through his textual processing and handling, was written as especially mysterious and precious. In literary embellishment this is called hyperbole. "I break jade branches as delicacies" means "turning ordinary tree branches into jade branches (jade-like branches), to serve as meat of livestock and wild beasts for food." "And refine jade powder as provisions" means taking ordinary leaves as fine grain. In another piece, "Mountain Spirit," Qu Yuan wrote in a way synchronized with Maogusi's actual life. Two lines say: "The person in the mountains, fragrant with Du Ruo, drinks from the stone spring and rests in the shade of pines and cypresses." That is, this is consistent with Maogusi drinking rock-marrow water (stone spring). "Resting in the shade of pines and cypresses" is exactly the same as the environment in which Maogusi lived under palm trees. If Qu Yuan had not personally seen Maogusi performances and heard Maogusi lines, he could not have written Maogusi's life scenes so vividly and graphically. Conrad said: "This factor is not a musical element of humanity, but a linguistic element of humanity. Naturally there are also various elements, rhythm, and melody, but they are used to reveal the connotations of vocabulary."
3. Descriptions of Maogusi agricultural activities in Qu Yuan's works
The era in which Maogusi originated, and the content of the times it expresses, belong mainly to the era of the gathering, fishing, and hunting economic type during humanity's early childhood. Qu Yuan gave vivid and uninhibited descriptions of this economic type in his poems. In "Xiang Jun" (The Lady of the Xiang River), Qu Yuan described the gathering economic type as follows: "Gathering bili in the water, plucking furong from the treetops." Both bili and furong are aquatic plants. Bili is a woody aquatic plant with trailing stems, ovate leaves, and spherical fruit, which can be made into liangfen (a jelly-like food). Gathering bili means collecting the fruit of the bili plant, processing it into liangfen, and then eating it. The fruit of the furong is the lotus seed still commonly eaten today. This is a completely true-to-life portrayal of the primitive life of gathering wild fruits. In "Shan Gui" (The Mountain Spirit), Qu Yuan wrote: "Gathering sanxiu in the mountains, where rocks pile up and ge vines spread." Sanxiu is the lingzhi mushroom, whose leaves can be eaten. Ge is a wild mountain food that the Tujia ancestors of the Wuling Mountain area often used to stave off hunger. Even now, whenever there is a year of disaster, the Tujia people still go up the mountains to gather ge roots as a substitute food. Of course, Maogusi could not go on gathering forever; on the basis of gathering, it also had to take a step forward. In "Li Sao" (The Lament), Qu Yuan wrote: "I have already cultivated nine wan of orchids, and planted a hundred mu of hui. I made beds of liuyi and jieche, and mixed in duheng and fangzhi. I hoped their branches and leaves would grow tall and luxuriant, and I wished to reap them when the time came." In other words, lan, hui, liuyi (a plant name), jieche (cou), duheng, and fangzhi were brought from the wild into domestic cultivation. Once these plants had grown luxuriant and mature, they would then be harvested. Here is revealed the dawn of the agricultural production mode.
While Qu Yuan gave detailed descriptions of Maogusi's gathering life, his descriptions of fishing and hunting life were also very vivid. For example, in "Shan Gui" he wrote: "Riding a red leopard, followed by striped wildcats, with a xinyi-wood chariot and a cassia-branch banner, clad in shilan and girdled with duheng, I pluck fragrant blossoms to give to the one I long for. I dwell in the deep bamboo grove and never see the sky; the road is perilous and hard, and I arrived alone and late." This passage by Qu Yuan renders the scene and atmosphere of hunting extremely vivid and lifelike, and his description of the array and momentum on the way to the hunt is also wonderfully done. In other words, this is the hunting scene as depicted by a literary man. When the Tujia perform the Maogusi piece "Shijie (Hunting)," how could the scene be any less intense? The scene in the Maogusi piece "Songzuo (Fishing)" is exactly the same as the fishing scene in Qu Yuan's "He Bo" (The River God): "Riding a white yuan and chasing the striped fish, I roam with you on the islet in the river." This is merely Qu Yuan beautifying the fishing activity with literary language. It is not a person catching fish naked in the water, but riding a white yuan (a large turtle) to chase the fish, describing fishing as a form of entertainment. That is why the next line immediately follows: "I roam with you on the islet in the river," simply making clear that one is playing by the river with companions. This adds a touch of romantic sentiment. In "Dong Jun" (The Lord of the East), Qu Yuan also gave a concrete description of hunting activities: "With blue clouds for a robe and white rainbows for a skirt, I raise the long arrow and shoot the Tianlang." In other words, in the early morning mist, when the wild beasts have lost their alertness, one uses arrows to shoot the prey. The "Tianlang" here refers generally to wild beasts (some interpret it as the Sirius star, but that is probably untenable). "Shooting the Tianlang" has also become a classic famous line in Chinese literature. This hunting scene matches the performance scenes in Maogusi.
4. Qu Yuan's Descriptions of Maogusi Life Scenes
The Maogusi era was an era when humans ate raw meat and drank blood. There were no houses, no clothes, and not even the invention of fire, so people still ate raw food.
First, let us look at Maogusi's dwellings. Maogusi mostly lived under trees or in rock caves. At the beginning of a Maogusi performance, there is a dialogue that goes like this:
Tima: Old Bapu, where did you come from?
Bapuka: We came from Aliekuzan across the way.
Tima: Where did you sleep last night?
Bapuka: We slept at the foot of the rock ledge last night.
In different Tujia villages, the Maogusi performances have different versions. Some say they slept in trees (the version from Shiti Village, Pojiao, Longshan County), some say under trees (the version from Tutuping Village, Longshan County), some say in rock caves (the version from Shuangfeng Village, Yongshun County), and some say under rock ledges (the version from Laotian Village, Longtou Town, Longshan County). These versions precisely reflect the diversity of Maogusi's dwellings at the time. In trees, under trees, under rock ledges, and in rock caves were all places where people of that time relied on the natural environment to shelter from wind and rain. In "Chu Ci" (Songs of Chu), Qu Yuan made a reproduction of Maogusi's dwellings. In the process of reproduction, the poet, relying on his own rich imagination, carried out technical processing of the related scenes. What was originally a very crude and very arduous place of dining on wind and sleeping in the dew was given special elaboration by the poet through literary rhetorical techniques and what is now called cinematic montage, depicting a non-building building in a way that makes one yearn for it. For example, in "Xiang Furen" (The Lady of the Xiang River), the poet wrote:
With sunken walls and purple altar, broadcasting fragrant pepper to form the hall; cassia beams and orchid rafters (the borrowed character should have the wood radical), xinyi lintels and medicine rooms. Netting bili to make curtains, splitting hui and mian (borrowed characters) and spreading them out. White jade as weights, scattered shilan for fragrance. Zhi thatching and lotus roof, encircled by duheng.
Strictly speaking, this is an extremely simple rock shelter (a very shallow rock overhang) that can barely keep off the rain, yet the author decorated it magnificently with sun, flowers, pepper, orchid, cassia, xinyi, bili, hui, jade, zhi, and duheng, and the identity of the dwelling was also transformed from a rock cave into an altar, a hall, a lotus roof, and a medicine room. This is the poet examining Maogusi's dwelling with another eye, disrupting the reader's line of sight. In fact, a careful reader will discover the poet's good intentions. In real life, where could there be such a seemingly magnificent dwelling that in fact had no practical value as a decorated residence? Only in a rock cave or under a rock ledge could such decoration still find a bit of comfort. Otherwise, only a neurotic would expend great effort to decorate his dwelling in such a way. The reason Qu Yuan depicted Maogusi's dwelling as so gorgeously adorned was to cover up the embarrassment caused by its excessive crudeness and shabbiness. However, even the wise may make a mistake in a thousand considerations. The incomparably clever Qu Yuan sometimes inadvertently, or rather through a slip of the pen, let the truth slip out, exposing the true appearance of Maogusi's dwelling before the reader. For example, in "Shao Siming" (The Master of Fate): "At evening I lodge in the outskirts of Di; for whom, my lord, do you wait at the edge of the clouds?" Here there is no concealment at all, and it is entirely consistent with Maogusi's actual dwelling. Maogusi slept under palm trees, and Qu Yuan wrote "At evening I lodge in the outskirts of Di," where "the outskirts of Di" means the outskirts beneath the Heavenly Emperor. Not only is this not much better than Maogusi's under the tree, but the environmental conditions are even worse. Under the palm tree one can still somewhat shelter from rain, wind, and dew, whereas "the outskirts of Di" is fully exposed to wind and rain and invaded by dew! In "Shan Gui," Qu Yuan has a line: "Drinking from the stone spring and resting in the shade of pines and cypresses," meaning that after drinking the stone spring water, one sleeps or rests under the pines and cypresses. This is exactly the same level as Maogusi sleeping under the palm tree, with no distinction between them. Although one is a palm tree and the other pines and cypresses, the different tree species produce the same effect. This may also be because after Qu Yuan had used up all his gorgeous rhetoric, he could only write it as it truly was.
5. Qu Yuan's Positioning of Maogusi
The birth of Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci" was a miracle in the history of Chinese culture. Whether scholars of Chu Ci or non-scholars of Chu Ci, after reading Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci," all feel that Qu Yuan is a great poet. People feel indignant on his behalf over his fate, especially since Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, leaving an eternal regret in the Chinese literary world. Qu Yuan's greatness was caused by two major factors. The first factor is that he deeply loved his motherland, so he was a great patriotic warrior; the second factor is the magnificent poems he wrote, so he was also a great patriotic poet. As for the former, because Qu Yuan was open and aboveboard and had a forthright character, others could see it at a glance. As for the latter, it created an eternal mystery in literary history. The Japanese Chu Ci scholar Fujino Iwatomo said: "'Chu Ci' originated from the words used in sacrifices and incantation rituals. This kind of wording is religious literature related to wu shamans and ritual officials (religious literature does not belong to the category of literature). Qu Yuan, with his creative spirit, reformed this traditional literary form, enabling it to completely escape its subordinate position to religion." Qu Yuan's poems are magnificent. If measured by present-day grammatical standards, some may feel the grammar is not very coherent and the logical thinking somewhat improper, as if one thing is spoken of here and another there. For example, in "Li Sao": "Swiftly I race as if I could not catch up; I fear the years will not wait for me. In the morning I pluck the magnolia on the hill; in the evening I gather the sumang on the islet." The first two lines speak of the urgency of time, while the last two speak of gathering flowers and trees—truly as unrelated as wind, horse, and cow. Examples like this appear in other pieces of "Chu Ci" as well. In order to give readers a satisfactory answer, Chu Ci scholars explained it with so-called "misplaced bamboo slips." For example, the Japanese Chu Ci scholar Inada Koichiro even wrote a long paper titled "Chu Ci·Li Sao"Doubts on Misplaced Bamboo Slips," with a total length of more than 14,000 characters, analyzing the misplaced bamboo slips in "Chu Ci," and finally rearranging the misplaced slips into correct slips according to his own thinking. Of course, Inada Koichiro was not the originator of the misplaced-slip theory. As early as the Han Dynasty, more than a hundred years after Qu Yuan's death, Wang Yi had already noticed something, though he did not speak of misplaced slips. In the explanatory note to "Jiu Ge Zhangju Di Er" (Nine Songs, Chapter and Verse, Part Two), he said: "Therefore its meaning is not uniform, and the chapters and sentences are mixed and disordered." Wang Yi was the first person in China to speak of "chapters and sentences mixed and disordered," which is closer to reality than saying misplaced slips, because only a little more than a hundred years separated Qu Yuan and Wang Yi, and Wang Yi should have been not too unfamiliar with the things Qu Yuan understood. Therefore, Wang Yi's use of "chapters and sentences mixed and disordered" was not only much wiser than explicitly saying misplaced slips, but also more consistent with objective reality. When Qu Yuan was exiled to the Tujia region of western Hunan, he collected Tujia cultural phenomena such as the "Tima Song," "Baishou Song," and "Maogusi," and carried out processing and re-creation. He did not copy them exactly as they were. Therefore, Zhu Xi of the Song Dynasty, in the explanatory note to "Jiu Ge" in his "Chu Ci Ji Zhu" (Collected Annotations on Chu Ci), said: "Therefore I have considerably revised and settled its wording, removing what is excessive." But in the explanatory note to "Jiu Zhang" (Nine Pieces), he also said: "Thus it is inverted, repeated, stubborn, and coarse." Master Zhu's explanation is relatively precise. Originally, in Qu Yuan's Li Sao, a clear interpretation of this phenomenon is given. In Li Sao, sentences 123 to 128, it says:"/p"
"Suddenly I turn back and look around, intending to go and observe the four directions. I wear a profusion of ornate adornments, and the fragrance is rich and ever more manifest. In life, each person has what he enjoys; I alone take delight in cultivation as my constant."
These six lines form three units of meaning, two lines per unit, with no meaningful connection among them. In 1968, the then Soviet sinologist E. A. Sererbryakov said something quite reasonable in "Qu Yuan and Chu Ci": "One cannot conflate the 'Nine Songs' often mentioned in the classics with the 'Nine Songs' processed by Qu Yuan, but the fact that their titles are the same should not be discussed as a mere coincidence." Sererbryakov's brilliance lies in recognizing that "Nine Songs" has two versions, and the original version may have been lines from the Tujia "Tima Song," "Baishou Song," and "Maogusi." That a foreign expert could have such an understanding is truly commendable.
Qu Yuan clearly knew that these lines were not harmonious with one another, so why did he insist on compiling them all together? Through careful interpretation and analysis, the center of the entire "Chu Ci" lies in the two lines "In life, each person has what he enjoys; I alone take delight in cultivation as my constant." The general meaning of these two lines is: different ethnic groups have different customs and ways of expressing entertainment, and I alone have come to regard such customs and ways of expressing entertainment as customary. This is the author telling people that some of his poems are works of folk collection, and that he deeply fell in love with these folk arts. Therefore, he did not want to blend these original folk things together, specifically taking disorder as beauty and plainness as beauty. Therefore, modern people should not be too demanding of an old poet from more than 2,000 years ago. Rather, they should examine him from a rational standpoint and an appreciative standpoint, and in this way they will, like the poet himself, discover the source of folk culture and the rich cultural deposits of the folk.