The anecdote of Master Zhuang coming across a skull and their conversation in a dream was a popular topic with authors of the second and third centuries; we know the names of at least four writers who adapted the theme. For one author, we have only a few lines, not enough to draw any conclusions about the way he developed the story. In the case of Lü An (d. 263), we have only what appears to be a fragment. The piece by Cao Zhi (192–232) may be more or less complete. The only rhapsody on a skull that has a good chance of being preserved in its entirety is the text attributed to Zhang Heng (78–139).
All three texts may elaborate the language but otherwise stay close to the narrative of the anecdote in the Master Zhuang. Lü An seems to take issue with the equanimity displayed by the dream apparition of the skull and wants to treat death as a disaster, but the text is too fragmentarily preserved to allow strong conclusions. Cao Zhi allows the dream apparition of the skull to expound at length on its superior pleasures, but in the end he returns to the agnostic attitude of Confucius regarding death: If we do not yet understand life, how could we pretend to understand death? The most original treatment of the theme is provided by Zhang Heng (if he is indeed the author of the text ascribed to him); he comes across not an anonymous skull but that of Master Zhuang, who now himself becomes the spokesman for the transcendent joys of death. But despite his long paean to the return to nothingness, the poet cannot help but cry, and one can only wonder whether he does so because Master Zhuang has died or because he pities him for his delusion. All three poets take care to bury the skull, which would be a superfluous action if they had been convinced by its voice.
These three texts all belong to the genre of fu (prose poems/rhapsodies). This means these texts are declamation pieces, written mostly in rhyming lines of four syllables or of six syllables. The texts are subdivided into stanzas by a switch of rhyme, and they may also include short prose passages, often at the beginning of a new stanza. In the traditional Chinese classification, the fu are classified as wen, which nowadays is often translated as “prose” but is perhaps better understood as “patterned writings” or belles lettres. This classification excluded, however, the various forms of song. Traditional Chinese literary theory and bibliography did not have a general word corresponding to the modern Western notion of poetry because shi, which nowadays is often translated as “poetry,” originally referred only to a specific genre of song, just like such later terms as ci (lyric) and qu (aria). From a formal Western standpoint, the fu is therefore best treated as a genre of poetry.
To feast his eyes on the Nine Regions
And observe transformation in the eight directions.
As the planets turned and the sun traveled,
Phoenixes soared and dragons raced.
In the south he visited the Vermilion Bank,
In the north he ascended the Dark Lands;
In the west he passed through the Valley of Dusk,
And in the east he reached the Supporting Mulberries.2
At that time
It was the season of late autumn,
And a slight breeze brought a chill.
So he turned the chariot he drove around:
The left horse soared, the right one whinnied.
He allowed them to graze on the higher fields
And freely roam about on ridges and hillocks.
Looking around, he saw a skull
That had been abandoned by the wayside:
Its lower part buried in the damp earth,
Its upper part covered by glittering frost.
Zhang Pingzi was saddened and asked him, “Did you perhaps
Throw away your life by gobbling up your rations3
So you passed away at an early age?
Did you flee and die in this place,
Or come here because you were banished?
Did you possess highest intelligence?
Or was it perhaps lowest stupidity?
Were you a woman?
Or were you a male?”
Thereupon, the skull manifested its numinosity, but you could only hear the voice of the spirit, you could not see its shape. The spirit replied,
“I was a man from Song,
Known as Zhuang Zhou.
My mind roamed beyond all conventions,
But I could not perfect my own body.
When my life and fate came to their limit,
I arrived here in this dark dungeon.
But sir, why do you ask me this?” Zhang Pingzi replied, “I want to
Appeal to the Five Marchmounts4
And pray to all gods and deities,
That they may resurrect your white bones
And give you back your four limbs.
We will take your ears om northern kan
And find your eyes in southern li;5
We’ll have
Eastern zhen present you with a pair of feet
And western kun provide you with a belly;6
The five organs will be restored
And the six divinities will return.7
Would you like that?” The skull replied, “What you propose would be too hard!
Death is leisure and rest,
Life is service and labor.
How can the frozen state of water in winter
Compare to
The melting of ice in the springtime?
Are glory and position to the body
Also not
Lighter than a speck of dust or a hair?8
The blinding sights of flying blades
Or the work of clerks with tablets and knives
Were a source of shame to Chaofu and Xu You9
And were abandoned by Bocheng Zigao.10
Moreover, I have been transformed
And now roam freely with the Way:
Even Li Zhu cannot see me,
Even Ziye cannot hear me;11
Yao and Shun cannot reward me,
Jie and Zhou cannot punish me;12
Tigers and leopards cannot harm me,
Swords and lances cannot hurt me.
I join in the current of yin and yang,
I share in the simplicity of the original ether;
I take the process of creation for my father and mother
And use heaven and earth as my couch and coverlet.
Thunder and lightning serve as my bellows and fan,
Sun and moon serve as my candle and lamp;
The Celestial River serves as my stream and pond,
And planets and stars serve as my pearls and jades.
I have united my substance with nature
And am free of feelings and desires.
When you strain me, I am no purer;
When you pollute me, I am not troubled.
Without walking, I arrive,
Without haste, I am gone.”
Thereupon
The voice stopped, the sound ceased,
And the glare of the spirit disappeared.
I looked around and decided to depart. I ordered my groom
To wrap the skull in a white scarf
And cover it with the dark earth.
Shedding tears for its sake,
I poured out a libation by the side of the road.
[Zhao Kuifu, Lidai fu pingzhu, 2:716–21; Zhang Heng, Zhang Heng shiwenji jiaozhu, 247–52]
Master Cao
Roamed on the banks of tanks and ponds,
Paced through overgrown and filthy swamps—
Oh so desolate, hidden, and silent:
He passed through the dark and scaled the steep.
Looking around, he noticed a skull,
All by itself, alone and forlorn.
Leaning on the front bar of his carriage, he questioned the skull: “Are you perhaps
An officer who, headband tied and sword in hand, died for his country?
Or a soldier who, dressed in armor and holding his weapon, was slain in battle?
An infant child whose fate came to an end because of a stubborn disease,
Or someone who at the end of his life span returned to darkness and gloom?”
Bowing to the remnant skeleton, he heaved a sigh,
Pitying the bleached bones for their lack of a soul,
Yet hoped that just as when Master Zhuang went to Chu,
It might entrust itself to a dream to communicate its feelings.
Thereupon, [its spirit] suddenly seemed to arrive and vaguely seemed to be present; its shadow appeared, but its face remained hidden as it said with a sharp voice, “Sir, from where may you be? You not only have taken the trouble to visit me but also have shown sympathy for my decaying remains, and not sparing the sounds you bestow on me, you comfort me with your words. But while you may be well versed in elocution, you do not yet penetrate the feelings of the other world or know the discourse on life and death.
Now death is spoken of as returning, and returning here means returning to the Way. As for the Way, the body
Takes pride in having no shape
So it can move and change with Transformation:
Yin and yang cannot effect any change,
The four seasons cannot cause any harm.
For that reason
It permeates the realm of the infinitesimal
And pervades the hall of the unfathomable;
Gaze, and you cannot see its form;
Listen, and you cannot hear its voice.
Scoop from it, and it will not grow empty;
Pour into it, and it will never be full.
No strong storm is able to make it wither;
No soft breeze is able to make it flourish.
Apply pressure, and it will not flow;
Let it freeze, and it will never stop.
Empty and pure, hidden and submerged,
It is coterminous with the Way:
Undisturbed, it sleeps forever—
No pleasure is greater than this!”
Master Cao replied, “Let me
Report to the emperor on high
And pray to the gods and deities
To let the master of fate rescind his registers
So your bones and shape can be returned to you.”
The skull thereupon heaved a heavy sigh and lamented with wide-open sockets: “Too bad! How come you are so obtuse? Once upon a time the master of great simplicity was so unkind as to burden me without any reason with a shape and to torture me with life. Now I have had the good fortune to die, so I have been able to return to my true self. Why are you so in love with weary toil, whereas I am in love with untrammeled ease? Please leave, and I will return to Grand Emptiness.” That was the end of his words, the last to be heard, and the glare of his soul disappeared like a mist. Turning around, Master Cao gave orders to go back. He thereupon ordered his groom to dust the skull with a black fly whisk and cover it with a white kerchief. Next they placed it out of sight by the side of the road, covered it with red earth, and hid it under green branches.
Now the different situations of existence and nonbeing
Have been set out in detail by Xuanni,13
So how can an empty reply, a spirit’s manifestation,
Declare the absolute equality of death and life?
[Cao Zhi, Cao Zhi ji jiaozhu, 524–28]
Deeply grieved and filled by sorrow,
I then roamed through my old village,
Where I came across a skull
That was lying by the wayside.
I thereupon
Looked down and up, and heaved a sigh
As I addressed the blue vault of the sky:
“Who is this person
Whose life was cut short?
His body is dissolving in the open field,
His bones lie exposed in this wilderness.
I will
Dress you in seasonal clothes,
Gift you with the proper attire,
And in an inner and outer coffin
Move you to a room of darkness.”
Thereupon
The skull seemed to be shaken;
The spirit was moved and reacted.
As if there and yet as if not there—
I vaguely discerned a shape.
A friendly expression and fair skin
…
“Long ago, because I lacked virtue,
I transgressed against Highest Heaven,
And when I arrived to roam in this place,
Heaven robbed me of my years.
All of my skin dissolved and disappeared,
And my white bones were scattered all over.
My four limbs were destroyed and hidden by the rampant weeds;
My lonely soul is overcome by sadness at the Yellow Springs.14
But who is born must return to Transformation,
Every bright morning reverts to dusk.
If we research this up above and here below,
There’s no creature that departs from this rule.”
Thereupon, I
Was moved by his bitter suffering,
But sneered at what he expounded.
“Because of your terrible hardship
As shape and spirit are torn apart,
I now
Will house you in the solid earth,
So it may be your eternal location:
We will have to go our different ways,
From now on we will be separated.”
[Ji, Ji Kang ji jiaozhu, 431]
1. Pingzi is the social name or style of Zhang Heng.
2. These four lines describe journeys to the outer edges of the earth. The sun rises from the Supporting Mulberries at the eastern end of the world.
3. That is, by finishing your supplies before the end of your trip.
4. The Five Marchmounts are the holy mountains that dominate the center and the four directions. They were also revered as divinities.
5. Kan and li are the names of two of the Eight Trigrams. Kan represents water; li represents fire.
6. Zhen and kun are the names of two other of the Eight Trigrams. Zhen symbolizes thunder; kun symbolizes the earth.
7. The six divinities inhabit the human body as the gods of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, spleen, and gallbladder.
8. The early philosopher Yang Zhu (fourth century B.C.E.) argued that the preservation of the body was the first priority, and he therefore would not sacrifice a single strand of his hair for the sake of someone else. One of our main sources for the teachings of Yang Zhu are chapters 28 to 31 of the Master Zhuang.
9. Both Chaofu and Xu You were hermits who lived during the legendary days of Emperor Yao. When the two of them, on separate occasions, were offered the empire, they indignantly refused the burdensome offer.
10. Bocheng Zigao was one of the feudal lords in the mythic days when Yao and Shun ruled the world. But when Shun ceded the throne to Yu, who would go on to establish the Xia dynasty (ca. 2100–1600 B.C.E.), Bocheng Zigao returned to farming.
11. Li Zhu (also known as Li Lou) was renowned for his keen eyesight; Ziye (also known as Shi Kuang) was known for his sharp hearing.
12. Yao and Shun are perfect rulers from a mythic past. Jie was the evil last king of the Xia dynasty, whereas Zhou was the evil last king of the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600–1050 B.C.E.).
13. Xuanni is one of the names for Confucius. The reference is most likely to Lunyu, XI.12: “Jilu asked how the spirits of the dead and the gods should be served. The Master said, ‘You are not able even to serve man. How can you serve the spirits?’ ‘May I ask about death?’ ‘You do not understand life. How can you understand death?’ ” (adapted from Confucius, Analects, 107).
14. The name Yellow Springs refers to the underworld, the realm of the dead.