Notes

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

1. Three Forces: sancai , that is, Heaven, Human, and Earth.

2. Clear Brightness: qingming , one of the twenty-four solar “Nodes,” spaced at approximately fifteen-day intervals, that divide the Chinese year. Clear Brightness usually occurs around April 6 of the Gregorian Calendar. It is generally a time for sweeping family tombs in the countryside, offering sacrifices, picnicking, eating cold foods, and flying kites. See Bodde, pp. 296 and 394.

3. Mace . . . candareen: traditional monetary (silver) units in China, the mace (qian ) is one-tenth of the Chinese ounce or tael (liang ), and the candareen (fen ) is one-tenth of the mace.

4. The dread day of the Red Sand: hongsha . According to calendrical literature, certain days of certain months bear the name of Red Sand, and such days are inauspicious (ji ) for marriages. See the Qinding xieji bianfang shu , j 36, 44a–b (Siku quanshu zhenben ; Taiwan Commercial facs. edition).

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

1. One Body: see JW 3, chapter 58, note 1. “True Suchness” is the Bhūtatathatā, yiru , the absolute or norm, or zhenru , the true suchness or character of reality.

2. Substances and forms: the technical Buddhist term used in the original is tixiang , substance and characteristics or phenomena. The first stands for the unity, the second for the diversity, of all things.

3. Six evils . . . desires: The six organs are the liugen , the six indriyas or sense organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The six desires, liuyu , are the lustful attractions forming from color, form, carriage, speech, touch (i.e., smoothness or soft-ness), and features.

4. Six paths—six forms of birth: that is, liusheng liudao liuqu , the six directions of reincarnation.

5. Thirty-six Halls: sanshiliu gong , the traditional number of halls or palatial chambers in the Han palace.

6. Forms or features: xingse , or samsthānarūpa, which are the features or characteristics of form—long short, square, round, high, low, straight, and crooked. These are what also awaken or stimulate the six desires.

7. Let O . . . : for the translation of the spell, see JW 3, chapter 65, note 7.

8. North Heaven Gate: Dhtarāṣṭra, , the Maharāja-deva who keeps his kingdom, is usually associated with the East. I have not emended the text.

9. Luminsecent pearl: see JW 1, chapter 12, for the description of Tripitaka’s cassock.

10. Wall-climbing priests: in traditional Chinese fiction, such clerics are usually either thieves or adulterers.

11. Brocade-fragrance: jinxiang , usually a metaphor for the pomegranate.

12. Wondrous palm: Posuo , another name for the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha was supposed to have attained enlightenment. See the Youyang zazu , j 18, 6a–b (SBCK).

13. Restrained the Bull Demon: see JW 3, chapter 61.

14. Mahārāja Mayūra: the former incarnation of Śākyamuni, said to be a peacock, also manifests himself as a four-armed mahārāja bodhisattva riding a peacock. Hence I have retained the masculine gender in the translation.

15. Wisdom: literally, famen , dharmaparyāya, those teachings or wisdom of Buddha venerated as the gate to enlightenment.

16. The head that had once supported a nest of magpies: during the time of intense meditation that led to his final enlightenment, the Buddha’s appearance was said to so resemble a tree that magpies or other kinds of birds nested on his head and laid eggs in the nest. See the Dachidu lun (the Mahāprañā-pāramita Śāstra), j 17, #1509, T 25: 188. See also the “Xiangmo bianwen ,” in DHBWJ, 1: 377.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

1. Causations: yuan , pratyaya, the conditional or circumstantial causation that gives rise to every phenomenon in the world.

2. Great Canopy: Daluo tian , the Great Canopy Heaven is the highest level in the Daoist Heaven. See ET 1: 299.

3. Folk songs: an allusion to the alleged ancient tradition (dating from the Han) that folk songs were most expressive of the mores and temper of the people, especially in their discontent with bad governmental policies or wicked officials. Such songs or poems would be gathered by officials to be presented to the ruler, presumably for an admonitory purpose. See, for example, the “Zhou Yu ,” in Guo Yu , j 1, 5a (SBBY): “therefore the Son of Heaven, attending to governmental affairs, would order the ministers down to the ranked officials to present poems .”

4. For medical supplement, see JW 3, chapter 69, note 12.

5. Buddha of Medicine: , the buddha who heals all illnesses, including the disease of ignorance.

6. The Great: the original text is mohe , the Chinese transcription for Mahā, meaning great or large.

7. Triratna: literally, sangui , the three refuges of the Buddhist, being the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sagha.

8. Five laws or rules of prohibition: wujie , the first five of the ten commandments, against the taking of life, stealing, adultery, lying, and taking intoxicating drinks.

9. The journey to the West . . . darkness: this is a pun on the popular phrase, shang xi-tian (ascending the western Heaven), which means death.

10. Great knowledge . . . comprehensive: dazhi xianxian , a phrase quoted from Book 1 of the Zhuangxi , j 1, 11b (SBBY).

11. This lengthy disquisition articulating an implied critique of Daoism from the Buddhist point of view is actually fashioned from selected lines and phrases from a “Rhymeprose on the Ground of the Mind, Xindi fu ,” by Sanyu Zhenren , in Minghe yuyin , DZ 1100, 24: 305. See discussion also in JW 1, introduction II, item 16. The line uttered by Tripitaka—“For a mind purified shines in solitary enlightenment ”—is a verbatim quotation from the rhymeprose, and it will be cited again in JW, chapter 85, when Pilgrim chides his Master for not remembering the essential lessons of mind cultivation.

12. Two Eights: erba ; for a discussion of this term and its sources, see JW 2, chapter 36, notes 21 and 23.

13. Three Nines: sanjiu . Three times nine is twenty-seven. This is likely a reference to alchemical theories based on the lunar month correlated with the lore of the Classic of Change. At the end of the month (between the twenty-seventh and thirtieth day), the moon is almost completely obscure, but when the crescent first appears like a thin line thereafter, the force of yang thus graphically represented is said to grow once more. See JW 2, chapter 36, note 21.

14. As noted also in JW 1, introduction III, item 17, the words of the Daoist royal father-in-law are actually assembled from parts of a “Rhymeprose on Honoring the Way, Zun-dao fu ,” by the Song emperor Renzong (1040–63), collected in the Minhe yuyin , in DZ 1100, 24: 305.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

1. Babies: in the context of this episode, the word refers, of course, to the young boys Pilgrim has rescued. But the Chinese term, ying’er , with its inherent numerical ambiguity, may have been used, deliberately but also facetiously, to enhance the allegorical flavor of the story, since as we have pointed out throughout the novel, the term “baby boy” is a standard metaphor for the state of realized immortality in internal alchemy.

2. Many hearts: a pun, since the Chinese term, duoxin , can also mean fickle or suspicious.

3. Black heart: this brief episode is built on an extended pun on the term, because heixin , is a well-known metaphor for an evil heart and mind.

4. Hall of Careful Conduct: literally, the Hall of careful or vigilant surveillance of one’s personal conduct. The term jinshen is an ironical allusion to Bk. 6 of the Classic of Filial Piety : “To keep careful watch over one’s personal conduct and to spend frugally in order to care for one’s parents—this is the filiality of the common people , , .”

5. Langyuan: , an abode of immortals.

6. Peng and Ying: Penglai and Yingzhou, two of the three famous mythical islands on which immortals live. For a brief description of their scenic splendor and inhabitants, see JW 2, chapter 26.

7. Supreme Ruler of the East: Donghua dijun , the deity who inhabits the blessed island of Fangzhang . See JW 2, chapter 26.

8. Reversion of the elixir: huandan , “a generic term” in inner alchemy wherein the process enables the various harnessed ingredients to “revert” to their original state. See ET 1: 498–500. For this regenerated and rejuvenating elixir thus achieved, Joseph Needham and his associates coined the neologism, anablastemic enchymoma. See Lu Gwei-Djen, “The Inner Elixir (Nei Tan): Chinese Physiological Alchemy,” in Changing Perspectives in the History of Science: Essays in Honour of Joseph Needham, ed. Mikuláš Teich and Robert Young (London, 1973), pp. 68–84, and SCC V/4: 210–323. The term apparently was also used in the syncretic Three-Religions-in-One (Sanjiao he yi) discourse. See Judith A. Berling, “Paths of Convergence: Interactions of Inner Alchemy Taoism and Neo-Confucianism,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 6 (1979): 123–47.

CHAPTER EIGHTY

1. Seedtime rites: these are the sacrifices offered at the soil alters (she ), which, according to Bodde, p. 197, “have existed in China all the way from the Shang dynasty down to the twentieth century.” The sacrificial days occur once in the spring and once in autumn. See Edouard Chavannes, Appendix, “Le Dieu du Sol dans la Chine antique,” in Le Tai Chang: essaie de monographie d’un culte chinois (Paris, 1910), pp. 437–525.

2. Heaven’s plaque: this regulated verse, like the poems in chapters 28 and 36 (See JW 2), is composed by means of a series of conventional names used for certain combinations in the traditional Chinese game of “dominoes” (bone tiles or ivory tiles, gupai or yapai ). Each line of the poem, in fact, has reference to one combination: thus line 1, tianpai (Heaven’s plaque or sky tiles); line 2, jinpingfeng (brocaded screens); line 3, guandeng shiwu (The Lantern Feast on the 15th of the first lunar month); line 4 tiandi fen (Heaven and Earth parting); line 5, longhu fengyun hui (dragon and tiger meeting [like] wind and cloud); line 6, yaoma-jun (countered by cavalry); line 7, Wushan feng shi’er (the twelve summits of Mount Wu); line 8, duizi (lit., to face the master, but in the game, it means a pair). In the following diagrams, three of such combinations are illustrated:

(1) “Heaven or Sky”

(2) “Lantern Feast”

(3) “Dragon and Tiger meeting wind and cloud”

For other combinations, see Qu You , “Xuanhe paipu ,” in Tao Zongyi ed., Shuofu , ce 154, vol. 33 (1647 edition); Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, translated by David Hawkes (Bloomington, IN, 1979), 2: 586–87.

3. Big creature: dachong , another term for tiger in traditional vernacular fiction.

4. Bimbāna Kingdom: I follow Ōta’s suggestion (2: 184) that pinpo (or ) may be the transcription for Bimba or Vimba, a bright red gourdlike fruit, momordica monadelphia.

5. “Lead the horse”: a Chinese colloquialism meaning to be a marriage go-between, first used in JW, chapter 23.

6. This poem is a lyric written to the tune of “Moon Over the West River” in double stanzas (i.e., shuangdiao ), with an extra line tagged on in the sceond part.

7. Floriate Canopy: huagai , a series of stars between Cassiopeia and Camelopar-dus. My translation of the term here follows that of Schafer, pp. 46–47. Although the lama priest is ostensibly a Buddhist, the reason he gives for taking up the priestly vocation is similar to that of many Daoists. See Yoshiotoyo Yoshioka, “Taoist Monastic Life,” in Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion, eds. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel (New Haven and London, 1979), pp. 234–35.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

1. Temple: literally, tianjie , the streets of Heaven. As an astronomical term, this could refer to either the Milky Way or the stars kappa and nu in Taurus. Another meaning is the street of the imperial capital. In this particular context, however, it seems more appropriate to use the term’s less common meaning of the abode of Buddha, as found in the Liang Yuandi , “Liang An sisha xiaming ”: “, (We watch the tower of wisdom and bow low; we gaze at Buddha’s abode and stir up virtue).” Cited in Zhongwen da cidian (10 vols., Taipei, 1973), 2: 1568, gloss 994.

2. Triyāna means: see JW 1, chapter 2, note 2.

3. Dharmamega: fayun , the metaphor of Buddhist teaching as a fertilizing cloud.

4. Dānapati: tanyue , a patron or almsgiver.

5. Water Litany of King Liang: see JW 2, chapter 37, note 1.

6. The gate beneath the moon: yuexiamen . The phrase may be an allusion to two lines by the Tang poet, Jia Dao . See his “Ti Li Ning youju ”: “, ,” in QTS 9: 6639.

7. Suoluo tree: , Cunninghamia anceolata.

8. Stinky root: that is, his penis.

9. Mythic, sea-filling bird: tianhai niao , this is Jingwei , daughter of Yandi , one of the five legendary rulers (i.e., Wudi ) of high antiquity. She went swimming in the Eastern Sea and drowned. Her spirit became a bird, which frequently picked up plants and stones from the West Mountain and tried to fill the ocean. See the TPYL, j 925, in 4: 4112.

10. Turtle: daishan ao . The turtle, or scorpaenid, as a mythic creature is said to bear on its back Mount Penglai in the Eastern Sea.

11. Lei Huan: , a master of astonomy in the Jin period, who was also the discoverer of two magic swords. See the Jin Shu , j 36, in Ershiwushi, 2: 1184d.

12. Lü Qian: , who came to the state of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. He was famous for the cutlass or scimitar (dao ) that he wore. See the Jin Shu, j 33, in the biographies of Wang Xiang and his brother, Lan , in Ershiwushi 2: 1175b–d.

13. Guan and Bao: this refers to the story of Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya . Guan was quite poor in his youth, but Bao was such a good friend that he frequently shared his wealth with Guan. See the Liezi , j 6, “Li ming [Endeavor and Destiny]”; and The Book of Liehtzǔ: A Classic of Tao, translated by A.C. Graham (New York, 1960), pp. 124–26.

14. Sun and Pang: this refers to Sun Wu , a master strategist from the State of Qi in the Warring Kingdoms period, and Pang Juan , a general from the State of Wei . For the story of how Sun outfoxed Pang in a battle and drove the latter to commit suicide, see the Shiji , j 65, in Ershiwushi, 1: 0182b–c.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

1. Product of yin-yang copulation: that is, water of nature.

2. Cave-Heaven, a blessed region: dongtian fudi , sometimes translated as “Grotto Heavens and Blissful Lands.” See the entry so named in ET 1: 368–73. The nomenclature is a standard one for rural retreats of Daoist recluses.

3. Orchid-gland: lanshe , the gland of the musk deer, used in China as a kind of perfume.

4. Fangdan: , I have not been able to discover this term’s exact meaning. There is, however, a kind of traditional candy named fangdan tang , usually made of sugar mashed with cream. The white pulp of the winter melon , with its seeds and skin removed, might resemble such a form of candy.

5. This is a lyric written to the tune of “Moon Over West River.”

6. Dear . . . : literally, elder brother or gege , a term in the context of amorous play as one of endearment.

7. Tumi: written in Chinese as and , it is a climbing plant with white or yellow blossoms.

8. Shaoyao: , paonia abiflora.

9. Yehe: , magnolia pumilia.

10. Yao’s yellow or Wei’s purple: . According to Ouyang Xiu’s treatise on the peony in the ancient capital of Luoyang, there are some thirty varieties of this flower, some named by the families who plant them and some by the places where they are found. Thus the “Yellow of Yao” refers to a species with yellow blossoms and dense leaves grown by a commoner household named Yao (“”). The “Purple of Wei” refers to another species with meat-red flowers grown by the household of a Minister Wei. See “Luoyang mudan ji ,” in Ouyang Wenzhong quanji , j 72, 4a (SBBY).

11. True man: this is a pun on zhenren , which can mean literally a true man/person, or someone of realized transcendence or immortality.

12. Six loaves of liver and lung: this and the description of the heart in the next line are allusions to Problem 42 () in the Nan Jing , j 4, 5a–b (SBCK). See also Nan-Ching, The Classic of Difficult Issues, translated and annotated by Paul U. Unschuld (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1986), pp. 416–24. In the book’s chapter, it is stated that “the heart weighs twelve ounces, and in the middle it has seven apertures and three hairs ,” and that “the lung, weighing three ounces . . . has six loves or leaves . . . .”

13. Scarlet thread: husbands and wives are said to have had their feet bound by scarlet cord or thread by fate.

14. Blue Bridge tide: , refers to the legend of one scholar Wei , who was to meet his girlfriend beneath the Blue Bridge. The girl failed to appear, and when the tide rose, Wei drowned hugging the bridge’s pillar.

15. Temple incense: an allusion to the love story of Cui Yingying, the heroine of the famed Xixiangji , the title of the dramatic version more recently translated as The Story of the Western Wing. In both narrative and dramatic versions of the story, the girl met her lover in a Buddhist temple.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE

1. Holy babe: shengtai , literally, the holy embryo. As has been pointed out and discussed in the introduction and notes of this edition, the metaphor is used for the attainment of realized immortality in the discourse of internal alchemy.

2. Basuc way: mudao , literally, the way of the mother. In this context, however, it may also mean the basic or the fundamental principle.

3. In premodern Chinese fiction and drama, there are many accounts of, and allusions to, the story of the Pagoda-Bearer Li and his third son Naa (or Nezha, alternate Mandarin trascription of , a diminished form of the Sanskrit name, Nalakūb[v] ara). The XYJ episode represents one of the two longest accounts of the story in traditional prose fiction, and the details concerning how the Buddha redeemed the prince’s wandering soul after his suicide and assumed later the mediatorial role between the bitterly feuding father and son by providing a Buddhist relic of pagoda or stūpa might have been closer to the Indian mythology transmitted to China through Tantric Buddhism. Naa’s story can also be found in a classic text like the Buddacarita-kāvya sūtra , an account of Buddha’s life by the poet Aśvaghoa and translated into Chinese by Dharmaraka in the fifth century CE. The even lengthier episode in late-imperial Chinese fiction is enshrined in the seventeenth-century novel Investiture of the Gods. See Xu Zhonglin , Fengshen yanyi , , eds. Li Yunxiang and Zhong Bojing (Nanjing, 1991), chapters 12–14, but here, the deities have all been changed to those of the Daoist pantheon. This significant change may reflect, as editors Li and Zhong suggest, the influence of the Sanjiao yuanliu Shengdi Fozu soushen daquan , eds. Wang Qiugui and Li Fengmao (Taipei, 1989), a Ming text steeped in the Three-Religions-in-One’s integrationist theology. For scholarly studies, see Liu Ts’un-yan, “Pishamen tianwang fuzi yü Zhongguo xiaoshuo zhi guanxi ,” (rpt. of 1958 essay) in HFTWJ 2: 1045–1094; Liu Ts’un-yan, Buddhist and Taoist Influences on Chinese Novels (Wiesbaden, 1962), pp. 217–42; Chen Xiaoyi , “Nezha renwu ji gushi zhi yanjiu ” (PhD dissertation, Fengjia University, 1994); and Chen Hok-lam , “, , ,” and “,” two essays reprinted in Mingchu di renwu, shishi yü chuanshuo , (Beijing, 2010), pp. 213–47 and 294–313. As can be seen in the scholarship enumerated here, temples dedicated to the cult of Nezha range from Beijing in the north all the way to the peninsula port city of Macau southwest of Hong Kong. The most authoritative analysis of sources and cultural meaning of this popular story is likely to be found in Meir Shahar’s forthcoming study, Oepidal God: The Legend and Cult of Ne-zha (Nalakūbara).

4. This is a lyric written to the tune of “Moon Over West River.”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

1. Priests: literally, = , or adhiṣṭhāna, the dependence on a base or rule. Hence, those who rely on Buddha for strength and support.

2. Letter-ten crossings: crossroads in the shape of the Chinese graph ten (shi ). I have translated quite literally to retain the numerical word play of the poem.

3. This lyric is written to the tune of “Moon Over West River.”

4. Famous horses associated with various rulers. See JW 1, chapter 4, note 6.

5. Suxiang: the name of one of the Eight Noble Steeds also referred to in JW 1, chapter 4.

6. The truth is known: ming xiaoxi . Although xiaoxi in modern Chinese vernacular usually means “news,” the term in classical usage refers literally to the endless flux of yin and yang as exemplified in the growth and decline of the tide, the wax and wane of the moon, and so forth. It is thus another term for the fundamental reality of the universe.

7. This entire comic episode is built on the pun of the words dharma and hair, both of which in Chinese are vocalized as fa (i.e, = ). The dharma-destroying king thus meets his reversal as the king who has lost his hair overnight.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE

1. As has been pointed out in JW 1, introduction part IV, this poem may also be found verbatim in the extra-canonical Daoist text dated to about two decades after the novel. See the Xingming guizhi 9: 532; XMGZ-Taipei, pp. 146–47. We do not know whether the text has quoted the novel or whether the poem exists as an independent verse in circulation.

2. This is a quotation of Zhu Xi’s commentary on Analects 1. 11. See Lunyu jizhu buzheng shushu , j 1, 42a–b.

3. Twenty-Constellations: for the identity of these and other deities mentioned in this sentence, see the notes in JW 1, chapter 5.

4. The words here refer to the episode of JW 3, chapters 74–77.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

1. Dark Horse: xuanju , another name for a large ant.

2. The following poem is apparently a catalog of various esculent plants, several of which still elude identification. For their translation, I have consulted Li Shizhen , Bencao gangmu (3 vols., Beijing, 1975–78); Bernard E. Read and C. Pak, A Compendium of Minerals and Stones Used in Chinese Medicine, from the Pên Tshao Kang Mu., 2nd ed. (Peking, 1936); F. Porter Smith, Chinese Materia Medica, rev. G.A. Stuart, MD, 2nd rev. ed., Ph. Daven Wei (Taipei, 1969); Kong Qinglai , et al., eds., Zhiwuxue da cidian , 6th ed. (Shanghai, 1926), hereafter referred to as ZWX; and Zhongyao da cidian (Shanghai, 1977), hereafter referred to as ZYCD.

3. Wild-goose-intestine: Yenchang ying , plant not yet identified.

4. Swallow: Yanzi , possibly a shortened term for Yanfuzi , a southern name for the fruit of Fatsia papyrifera (Smith, p. 22). Or it may refer to Yanzihua , Iris laevigata.

5. Horse-blue: Malan , one of the several plants belonging to Indigofera tinctoria (Smith, pp. 217–18).

6. Dog-footprints: Goujiaoji , Phyllanthus cochinchinensis (ZYCD, p. 1427).

7. Cat’s-ears: Maoerduo (), Gymnopteris vestita (ZYCD, p. 2209); it is also related to Huercao , Saxifraga stolonifera (ZYCD, p. 1335).

8. Bi: , the fruit of Piper longum, or Chavica roxburghii (Smith, pp. 103–04).

9. Ashen-stalk: Huitiao , possibly the same as huidi , Chenopodium album, also called goosefoot.

10. Scissors’-handle: Jiandaogu , Lactuca debilis.

11. Cow’s-pool-profit: Niutangli , plant not yet identified.

12. Hollow-snail: Woluo , possibly a reference to the “snail-shell grass” or Drymo-glossum earnosum (Smith, p. 157).

13. Broken-rice-qi: Suimi qi . The full name should be Daye suimi qi , Cardamine hirsuta.

14. Wocaiqi: . Wocai is possibly another name of baiju , Lactuca saliva (Smith, pp. 224–30; see ZWX, p. 1207).

15. Niaoying: , plant not yet identified.

16. Wheat-wearing-lady: Zhuomai niang , possibly a variant of quemai , Avena fatua (Smith, p. 59).

17. Torn-worn-cassock: popona = , plant not yet identified.

18. Little-bird: que’er , possibly a reference to Jin que’er jiao or “golden bird pepper,” the fruit of baixian , Dictamnus albus (Smith, p. 149). In ZWX (p. 991), however, there is the entry of que’er wodan , Euphorbia humifosa, which is the same as dijincao .

19. Monkey’s-footprints: husun jiaozhi ; the plant has not yet been identified, though it may be another name for “monkey’s-head, husun tou , Eclipta alba.”

20. Slanted hao: xiehao , seseli libanotis, so named because the leaves are transversely veined (Smith, p. 405). The Green hao is artemisia apiacea. The Mother-hugging-hao is baoniang hao ; its true name should be buniang hao , Si-symbrium sophia (ZWX, p. 521).

21. Bare Goat-ears: yang’er tu , the true name being yangti , goat hoofs, Ru-mex japonicus Houtt (ZYCD, p. 965).

22. Gouqi: , frequently identified as Lycium chinense (see ZWX, p. 659), but Smith (p. 286) thinks that it should be nitraria schoberi.

23. Black-blue: wulan , plant not yet identified.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

1. Native light: xuanguang or yuanguang , generally regarded as the innate intelligence of man naturally endowed. See Huainanzi , j 2, 11b (SBBY): “, , , , When one’s external action does not match one’s inner nature and yet one desires to maintain contact with material reality, this is to cover up one’s innate intelligence and seek knowledge instead from the ears and the eyes. To abandon the light and move toward darkness is what is called the loss of the Way.”

2. As noted in item 18 in introduction III, JW 1, this is half of a lyric written to the tune of “Su Wu in Slow Pace,” the author of which is Feng Zunshi . The poem is part of a collection in the Minghe yuyin preserved in DZ 1100, 24: 263.

3. Prefect Shangguan: is possibly a pun, because Shangguan can mean literally noble or superior official, or, as in the case here, a double surname like Sima or Ouyang.

4. A large countenance: one colloquial idiom of doing a favor is “bestowing face or .”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT

1. For this line and the entire poem, see JW 1, chapter 12.

2. Sprinkling Flowers over the Top: these are names of movements or postures assumed in martial art.

3. Causes: yuanyou , literally, developing causes.

4. Ubiquity: yuantong , literally, the universally penetrating or Buddha’s supernatural power of omnipresence.

5. To the mean reverse: guizhong . The word zhong (middle, center, mean) can refer to many things in Buddhism: for example, Zhongguan lun , the Mādhyamika Śāstra, the principal work of the Middle School expounding the opposition to the rigid categories of existence and nonexistence; or zhongdao , the mean between extreme oppositions such as the phenomenal and the noumenal, realism and nihilism, substance and nonsubstance, being and nonbeing, and so forth. In view of the poetic comment at the end of the chapter, however, zhong may be a conveniently abbreviated allusion to Zhongyong , the Confucian classic, Doctrine of the Mean (see note 8, this chapter).

6. Yangshan: , one of the top-grade teas.

7. A single canon: Yizang , or a single catalogue. Popular tradition ascribes 5,048 juan (literally, scroll) of Buddhist scriptures to the famous Kaiyuan Catalogue , and it is from this that the phrase—the number of a single canon (yizang zhi shu )—derives. Actually, the full catalogue lists 2,278 bu (a unit of completed composition, hence a tome or volume) of scripture containing 7,046 juan. The number of 5,048 is mentioned once, as far as I know, as follows: “.” See text of the catalogue in # 2154 in T 55: 572. This last number, however, is presumed to be the normative one for the canon throughout the novel; its symbolic significance is applied to the weight of Eight Rules’ muckrake as well as, later, to the number of days required for the pilgrims to complete their journey.

8. The brief description of how the three young princes received instruction and enablement to wield extremely heavy magic weapons belonging to Tripitaka’s three disciples is an abbreviated or paraphrastic account, in fact, of the neidan (internal or physiological alchemy) process. Because “comparing the development of the embryo to the revelation of Buddhahood is typical of neidan texts of the Ming period” (ET 2: 884), the “restoration of the primordial spirits to their original abodes ,” as the novelistic text says here, is an indispensable step in the alchemical ritual. Moreover, “the birth of the embryo (shengtai ),” as we have noted already, is synonymous with the attainment of somatic transcendence or physical longevity, and it is also represented as “the appearance of the original spirit (yuanshen ) or Buddha-hood and is understood as enlightenment. The process leading to the birth of the embryo consists of the purification of inner nature and vital force (i.e., xing and ming).” ET 2, loc. cit. Such an understanding forges the strongest link of Ming neidan teachings with those of the Quanzhen patriarchs of the Yuan and their integrationist formulations on the theology of the Three Religions (sanjiao ). It also clarifies the meaning of such a popular adage on mental or spiritual distraction as “the spirit not guarding its [native] abode .”

9. Fire-phases: huohou , a term widely translated as “fire times” by scholars in the study of Chinese alchemy, both external and internal, but I have decided to use here Needham’s term chosen in SCC V/4. It is an imagined unit of measurement to gauge the intensity and duration of the heat required for any process of warming, melting, forging, extracting, or refining to be effective. Thus the metaphor itself is still used today in the preparation of food. In internal alchemy, the breathing exercises leading to the galvanization of somatic ingredients are expected to generate heat, a parallel to the vital element used in the ovens and cauldrons of external alchemy. In turn, the bodily heat is supposed to reenact and “accelerate” the creative process by reversing and repairing physical imbalance or decay. See SCC V/4: 266–78, V/5: 44–120; ET 1: 526–31. The regulation of the fire-phases is made much more complex by alchemical theoreticians through correlations with different systems of planetary movement generated by different interpretations of the Classic of Change.

10. The first two lines of this commentarial poem are a near verbatim quotation from the canonical Confucian classic, Doctrine of the Mean , chapter 1: , , . The citation, however, also aptly illustrates how a sacred text of one discrete tradition may be appropriated at will by another tradition for usage, but with altered meaning. Here, the Confucian Way, or Dao, has been transformed in the specific poetic context (and the story’s as well) to mean “weapons divine (shenbing ),” themselves also symbols of the realization of another Dao.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE

1. Dragon pulse: or earth pulse (longmo , dimo ). They stand for magnetic currents noted by geomancers as affection the fortunes of lands and families.

2. Peach Blossom Cave: Taoyuan dong , an allusion to the legend of the Peach Blossom Spring (Taohua yuan , first made famous by the poet, Tao Qian (365?–427). The poem records how, at the edge of a river lined with blooming peach trees, a fisherman found a self-sufficient eremitic community, which lasted for several hundred years. See the Gushi yuan , j 8, 116–26 (SBBY).

3. Four-lights shovel: siming chan . The name Four-lights may refer to one of the Daoist sacred mountains, so named because there are said to be four openings in the mountain, through which the lights of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the constellations shine. On the other hand, the name may also refer to four Shingon emblems—a hook, a cord, a lock, and a bell—which serve as aids to Yoga-possession by a bodhisattva or buddha.

4. Gibbon-Lion: naoshi . The word nao generally means a long-haired ape or gibbon. What this creature is is not certain. It may simply be a concoction by the XYJ author.

5. Suanyi: , another name for lion, or a fabulous beast that can devour tigers and leopards and travel five hundred li a day. See the Ery a , j 11, 5a (SBBY); Mu tianzi zhuan , j 1, 7a (SBCK); TPYL, j 889, 4a; SCTH, ce 70, 3a–b.

6. Baize: , the name of a lionlike fabulous beast, the shape of which is sewn on the front and back of Ming imperial banners and robes to be displayed or worn in formal ritual processions. See Ming Shi , j 64, “Yufu zhi ,” in Ershiwushi 9: 144b–c.

CHAPTER NINETY

1. Masters and lions: the lines of the titular couplet are built on puns impossible to replicate in English. The first line is literally thus constructed: masters (shi ), lions (shi ), those teaching (shou ), those receiving (shou ), all . . . and so forth. And the second line: bandits (dao ), Dao or the Way (), entanglement (chan ), Chan (), quiet . . . and so forth.

2. Three-cornered club: see JW 2, chapter 43, note 7.

3. An ax: for the sake of prosodic manageability, I have put the fu (ax) of the previous line here. The guduo of this line is another name for caltrop (jili ). See SCTH, ce 60, 25 a–b.

4. Hour of the Tiger: 3:00–5:00 a.m.

5. Someone’s teacher: the statement of the devarāja continues to pun on teacher and lion (both words—, —articulated as shi). The pun is also an allusion to the oft quoted observation by Mencius: “The trouble with people is that they are fond of acting as teachers of other people .” See Mencius 4A: 23.

6. One Body: yiti . For the meaning of this important term in the novel, see JW 3, chapter 58, note 1. This line of verse again makes apparent the sense that the united members of the pilgrimage would also serve to symbolize the “one essential bodily structure” of a transcendent adept. The term translated as pariahs here is bianyi , literally, border barbarians.

7. Nine: literally, jiuling , Ninefold Numina, the name of the lion.

CHAPTER NINETY-ONE

1. Three Ways: that is, the three paths of transmigration.

2. As has been noted in introduction III, item 19, this regulated poem is a modification of a lyric written to the tune of “Auspicious Partridge” by the Quanzhen patriarch Ma Danyang (1131–1183), the first disciple of Wang Chongyang, founder of the Order’s northern lineage. The poem is found in Jianwu ji (Collected Writings of Gradual Enlightenment), DZ 1100, 25: 475.

3. Within the moon: not the satellite, but a circular gateway that has the shape of a moon. For a modern version of such a structure, see Audrey Topping, “A Chinese Garden Grows at the Met,” The New York Times Magazine, 7 June 1981, p. 41.

4. Summits: these are artificial hills or rockeries.

5. Gold-Valley: an allusion to the Gold-Valley Garden (jingu yuan ), a luxurious garden resort built by Shi Chong . See Jin Shu , j 33, in Ershiwushi 2: 1177c.

6. Fellow-Spring: an allusion to the Wangchuan tu , a famous landscape painting done by the Tang poet-painter, Wang Wei (699–759).

7. The most fragrant flower: ruixiang hua , Daphne odora.

8. A vow: see JW 1, chapter 13; JW 3, chapter 62.

9. With three yang begins prosperity: sanyang kaitai , a variant form of the popular saying, sanyang jiaotai , thee yang have joined up with tai. The saying is based on the Classic of Change, where the Tai hexagram is represented thus with three broken lines on top and three continuous lines below: . The three unbroken lines at the bottom are the three strokes of yang, or lines symbolizing the male, whereas the three broken lines on top, the female. Because this hexagram in calendrical literature is correlated with the first month, the saying usually signifies renewal and a change of fortune, which the new year is supposed to usher in. Spring is thus visualized as the season of birth and growth because the male and female forces of the cosmos have joined to mate. The Sentinels’ action in the novel, moreover, puns on the homophonous yang and yang (goat or sheep).

10. Four ears: I am puzzled by the number, but I have not been able to find an explanation. Each rhinoceros has only two ears, and three of them would have six.

CHAPTER NINETY-TWO

1. Fireflies: the whole line reads, “the ancients said, ‘Grasses decayed etc.’” Which specific ancient author the XYJ author has in mind is uncertain, but fireflies are often associated with decayed or withered grasses in traditional writings. See Zhaoming taizi , “Liuyue qi ,” in Zhaoming taizi ji (SBBY), j 3, 5a: , ; Li Shangyin , “Sui Gong ,” in Yuqisheng shi jianzhu (SBBY), j 6 7b: , .

2. This is a lyric written to the tune of “Moon Over West River.”

3. Grass of the Reverted Cinnabar: see JW 1, chapter 25 and JW 2, chapter 26.

4. Female rhinoceros: sixi . Although the word si was first used as a rhinoceros-like creature, it was later glossed consistently as a female rhinoceros.

5. Barbarian-hat rhinoceros: humao xi = () , so named because the horns of the beast are located more toward the snout.

6. Duoluo rhinoceros: duoluo xi , supposedly the largest type of rhinoceros. For a description, see Liu Xun , Lingbiao yilu ji (Taiwan Commercial Press facsimile edition), j 2, 6b. For further discussion of the rhinoceros in Chinese lore, see Chun-chiang Yen, “The Chüeh-tuan as Word, Art Motif, and Legend,” JAOS 89 (1969): 578–99. Duoluo may also be an abbreviation of Duoluobodi (Dvāhapti), an ancient kingdom on the upper Irrawaddy.

7. “Good’s limit begets evil”: the sentence says literally, the extremity of prosperity produces negativity. It refers to the hexagrams of the Classic of Change, in which the graphic representation of the pi (evil, negativity) reverses exactly that of the tai (prosperity). In this cyclic view of the universe, the end of one phase or condition gives rise to the opposite other.

CHAPTER NINETY-THREE

1. Three estrades: santai , three estrades or terraces, allegedly built for ancient rulers for different kinds of observation. The lingtai , spirit terrace or numinous estrade, is for the exclusive purpose of inspecting celestial or astronomical patterns (tianwen ), and this activity is supposedly reserved solely for the ruler. The temporal estrade, shitai , is for observing seasonal transformations. The enclosed estrade, youtai , is for observing wildlife such as beasts, fishes, and fowls. The last two estrades may be used by feudal princes and ministers. Posed in this line of the poem, the rhetorical question seems a tacit critique of the “three estrades” as handed down by the Confucian imperial tradition. The lingming (spiritual understanding, translated here as discernment) should focus only on the lingtai or numinous estrade as heart-and-mind, the cultivation of which, according to the poem, would lead to Buddho-Daoist enlightenment.

2. This is another lyric written to the tune of “Moon Over West River.”

3. Eight-word brick walls: see JW 2, chapter 36, note 5.

4. For a modern account of this story, see Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, ed. G.P. Malalasekera. Published for the Pāli Text Society by Luzac and Co., Ltd., 2 vols. (London, 1960), 1: 963–66.

5. On the dialectical relation between our nature and the moon, see JW 2, chapter 36.

6. On the construction of clepsydras in China and their principle of operation, see SCC 3: 315ff.

7. Brightest light: literally, jiuhua , a term traditionally associated with decorated ornaments or appointments in the imperial palace—for example, a jiuhua fan or a jiuhua drapery. There was also a jiuhua deng , a specially decorated lantern used for the Lantern Festival, the light of which was supposed to be able to reach a hundred li all around when placed on top of a hill. This last allusion seems more appropriate for the meaning of the text here.

8. The hour of the Tiger is 3:00–5:00 a.m.; the hour of the Serpent, 9:00–11:00 a.m.

9. Taizong: this term causes the Indian ruler to have the same name as the Tang emperor, but the Chinese nomenclature is simply the dynastic title, meaning the “Supreme Ancestor.” Any founding ruler of a new reign or dynasty can be given this title. Apparently without any knowledge of historical India, the XYJ author simply imagines that country to be another replica of China.

10. Yizong means literally the “Pleasant or Agreeable Ancestor,” and Jingyan, the reign title, means “tranquil banquet.”

11. No-leak: for the meaning of wulou or bulou , see JW 1, chapter 17, note 6.

12. Three perfections: sanquan , the preservation of the three vital ingredients of the body—(spermal) essence, breath, and spirit (jing, qi, shen)—is a constant theme in internal alchemy.

13. Six organs: of the senses.

CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR

1. The work of two-eights: for the meaning of this term in alchemy, see JW 2, chapter 36, note 23.

2. The time of three times three: the term sansan is used to depict the correlation between the hexagrams of the Classic of Change and the lunar cycle. As noted in chapter 91, this volume, the tai hexagram is made up of three yin (broken) strokes on top of three yang (unbroken) lines in the bottom, and the pi hexagram is an exact reversal of this representation. The tai is then correlated with the waxing of the moon in the first quarter (qianxian ), and the pi with the waning of the moon in the last quarter (houxian ). For the dialectical relation between the moon and self-cultivation in internal alchemy, see various notes in JW 2, chapter 36, and SCC V/4: 266 ff.

3. For the meaning of “the baby” and that of “the fair girl” in the line following, see JW 1, chapter 19, note 10.

4. Four Signs: sixiang . In Buddhism, this term refers to the four avasthā or all states of all phenomena—birth, being, alteration, and death. There are also variations of these states in different schools or divisions. In the discourse of divination (shu ), however, the term refers to specific days during the four seasons (e.g., the day bingding in spring, mouji in summer, rengui in autumn, and jiayi in winter) when they are said to be days of prosperous signs , fit for all kinds of activities such as building, repair, trade, planting, conception, and moving. Understandably, these moments are also specially efficacious for alchemical undertakings. In alchemical discourse, the Four Signs or Emblems (sixiang = ), moreover, refer (among other things) to the correlation of the Gold Squire (jinweng/gong / ) with the secretion of the lungs (), the Fair Girl (cha’nü ) with the hole in the heart (), the Baby Boy (ying’er ) with the spermal essence of the kidneys (), and the Yellow Dame (huangpo ) with the secretion of the spleen (). The way the term is used in Sha Monk’s autobiographical declaration clearly points to a meaning conferred by internal alchemy. “Harmonized (hehe )” in such a context thus means literally to fuse or unite harmoniously or in a balanced manner.

5. Leopard’s-tail: baowei , a bannerlike ornament hung at the back of an imperial chariot.

6. Carved dragons: chitou , dragons carved at the entrance to the court or palace.

7. The hour of the Serpent is 9:00–11:00 a.m.

8. Bids phoenixes to come, etc.: or beckon the phoenixes to arrive in proper manner , a reference to book “Yi and Ji ” of the Book of Documents. See Shangshu zhengyi , j 5, in SSJZS 1: 144a, where it states: “when fluted harmonies perform the nine parts of the royal music, male and female phoenixes will arrive in proper ritual manner , .”

9. For the flowers mentioned in the next fourteen lines of the poem, their identities are as follows: moli , Jasminum sambrac; lichun hua , Papaver rhoeas; “Wood-brush” flower, mubi hua , Magnolia conspicua, so named because the flower’s first opening resembles a Chinese brush; fengxian hua , Impatiens balsamina, used in northern regions of China in combination with alum as a nail polish; “Jade-pin” flower, yuzan hua , Funkia subcordata, so named because of its white, pearly blossoms and bracted stems.

10. Heaven-gate: a metaphor for the imperial gate.

11. Hanlin Academy: Hanlin yuan , a common variant name for the Institute of Academicians established in the reign of Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756). At first, the academicians, as officials holding “substantive posts” in different units of the central government, were charged with the clerkly assignments of “drafting, editing, and compiling” of official documents. By the time of the Song and thereafter, the charge in the academy became a substantive post itself. See Items 2142 and 2144 in Hucker, p. 222.

12. Kui: , malvaceous plants of all varieties.

13. The pawlonia or wutong , sterculia platanifolia, is a favored tree for symbolizing autumn in both traditional Chinese verse and painting. It is also a convention of the arts that the tree is planted by wells that, in wealthy households, are often constructed with carved, gilded railings.

14. The library’s four treasures are brush, paper, ink, and ink-slab or ink-stone.

15. Huai: , Sophora japonica.

16. Milk: sulao , literally, koumiss and cheese. For the use of milk and other dairy products in traditional Chinese diet, see Edward H. Schafer’s article “Tang,” in Food in Chinese Culture, Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, ed. K.C. Chang (New Haven and London, 1977), pp. 106–7.

17. Mao Qiang: , a famous beauty of the fifth century BCE, said to be a mistress of King Yue.

18. Women in the ancient southern state of Chu are reputed to be particularly beautiful.

19. This is another lyric written to the tune of “Moon Over West River.”

CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE

1. Numinous Source: lingyuan , another name for the Star Lord of Supreme Yin , the god of the moon.

2. Gong, etc.: these are the five tones of the Chinese pentatonic scale, , , , , . According to the article “China” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (20 vols., London, Washington, DC, and Hong Kong, 1980), 4: 260–61, these notes “are generally considered to be the earliest known Chinese pentatonic scale.” They are also “the first five of the Pythagorean series. When arranged in an ascending order they are equivalent in terms of relative pitch to C-D-F-G-A.” See also the discussion in SCC IV/1: 160–228.

3. Three Primes: sanyuan . There are several explanations for the meaning of this term, the most basic being the abbreviated form of sancai zhi yuan , the three primes of Heaven, Earth, and Humans. Another name for these elements is sanguan . See the Biography Pan Ni in the Jin Shu , j 55, Ershiwushi 2: 1229c–d. In the literature of divination, one yuan refers to a cycle of sixty years. Finally, in Daoist writings, the term Three Primes again may have several meanings. Most fundamentally, it may refer to the three precosmic original breaths of the world (yuanqi ). In internal alchemy literature, sanyuan may refer to the “three cinnabar fields (san dantian )” located in the human body, or it may refer to the primary somatic ingredients by which physical immortality is realized. In the Zhonghe ji (thirteenth century, DZ 249 in 4), for example, we have on p. 488 this statement: “The superior drugs are of three kinds: essence (jing ), breath (qi ), and spirit (shen ). There is but one structural substance, but their function are twofold. What is structural substance? They are originally the great matter of Three Primes. What is function? They are the reactive functions of internal and external usage ; , ; ? ; ? .” Thus those who succeed by refining essence and changing that into breath have worked on the Human prime (renyuan ); those by refining breath and changing that into spirit have worked on the Earth prime (diyuan ); and those refining spirit and returning it to the void (xu ) have worked on the Heaven prime (tianyuan ). See ET 2: 1282–83. The monster here in the poem is, of course, eulogizing her cudgel-like pestle. It should be remembered, however, that her particular weapon is vitally linked to her person as a material symbol of her individual character and the state of transcendence realized through self-cultivation. She and the instrument are thus similar to the goldfish and the lotus plant with its unopened bud that became a bronze mallet in the alchemical process (see JW 2, chapter 49), and to Tripitaka’s three disciples with their own weapons (this volume, chapters 88–90). This kind of association is evident in a great number of deities and transcendents throughout the Chinese religious pantheon, most notably perhaps in the familiar group of Eight Immortals (ba xian ), in which each member thereof possesses a particular instrument (a fan, a flower basket, a transverse flute, etc.) marking the owner’s personality and power.

4. Toad Palace: changong , another name for the Lunar Palace. For an informative account of the moon in Chinese mythology, see Schafer, chapter 9. In the next line of verse, the Cassia Hall, guidian , is the name of a room in the Lunar Palace.

5. Vast-Cold Palace: another name for the Lunar Palace, first encountered in JW 1, chapter 19. The name has its basis on the fact that the moon sheds light with no heat.

6. Three rabbit lairs: based on the common saying that the sly hare always has three lairs.

7. Lady White: su’e and the Blue Maiden are both goddesses of the moon.

8. Revealing cause: the Chinese, liaoxing , is an abbreviation of liaoyin foxing , the second of the three Buddha-nature causes. The first, zhengyin , is the direct cause of attaining the perfect Buddha-nature, and it is associated with the Dharmakāya. The second is related to Buddha-wsidom, while the third, yuanyin , is the environing cause, associated with the merit and virtue of Buddha, which results in bringing salvation to self and others.

9. Sea of gold: a likely reference to the name of the monastery, Gold-Spreading.

CHAPTER NINETY-SIX

1. Why speak of dream: literally, the line reads, “Why does one need you in a dream to relate a dream ?” The rhetorical question, in turn, derives from the irony of doubled illusion expressed in the saying, “A silly person speaking of a dream ,” and its distant source may be traced back to the ancient Daoist exposition on the interrelated theme of dream and illusion preserved in the Zhuangzi. The novel’s poem is another lyric written to the tune of “Moon Over West River.” As noted in part III, item 20, of the introduction, the poem is also a near-verbatim citation of one of the two-dozen-plus lyrics of the same tune authored by Zhang Boduan of the “Wuzhen pian ,” collected in the Xiuzhen shishu . The main alteration comes in the poem’s first line, where Zhang’s version reads: “The phenomenon of phenomena is originally no phenomenon .” See DZ 263, 4: 748. The identical diction of both poem’s second lines takes on special significance with the alliterative binome, “emptiness [of] emptiness, or empty emptiness, kongkong ,” in the history of pre-modern Chinese fiction. Few students of the genre would miss the remarkable name bestowed on one of the enigmatic figures populating the opening and closing chapters of the full-length Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber or Story of the Stone). It is the Daoist Kongkong , rendered as Vanitas by David Hawkes and John Minford. That the putative author of the Qing novel is acquainted with The Journey to the West in both dramatic and novelistic forms has ample textual evidence. We do not know, however, whether Cao Xueqin had also read Zhang Boduan, but the Quanzhen patriarch’s use of the term kongkong followed specifically by another startling poetic reference to a dreamer speaking of a dream tempts us to speculate.

2. Five-colored clouds: the wuyun here is short for wuyunti , a metaphor for a calligraphic style stemming from one celebrity scholar Wei Zhi in the Tang, who used to sign his name like a five-petaled cloud. Later, wuyun or duoyun became also a metaphor for letters. See Wei’s biography in the Xin Tang Shu , j 122, in Ershiwushi 5: 3956b. In the present context, the metaphor probably refers to strips of Buddhist writings freshly written to decorate the sacrificial tables.

3. Scholars: xiucai , literally, young talents. It is the historical name given to students who have taken their first degree in the civil service examination.

4. A Guide: Shilin guangji , an encyclopedia of the Song compiled between 1100 and 1250 CE, but it was first published in 1325. My translation of the title follows Needham.

5. Gonche notations: . According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 4: 264, this was a form of notation similar to solfeggio in concept. It indicated “pitch and was the most popular form of notation for both vocal and instrumental music” from the thirteenth century to the twentieth. For illustration of the gongche scores, see pp. 265 and 272. See also the discussion in Wang Guangqi , Zhongguo yinyue shi (Shanghai, 1934; reprinted in Taipei, 1974), chapter 5, pp. 7ff.

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

1. External Aid: waihu . This term of Buddhism refers to food and clothing provided for clerics, as contrasted with the internal aid of Buddha’s teachings. It is used here as a metonym for the squire.

2. Three spirits and seven souls: sanhun qipo . Chinese thought from the earliest times has affirmed in an individual human two kinds of souls. According to SCC V/2: 85ff., “the ouranic component, the hun soul, came from the upper air and was received back into it, while the chthonic component, the pho soul, was generated by the earth below and sank back to mingle with it after death.” Around the time of the Later Han, “the number of hun souls was definitively at three and the number of pho souls at seven.” Needham finds it difficult to give a reason for the numbers, but he suspects a “macrocosmic or astrological” association. See also ET 1: 69–71.

3. Gong and Huang: these refer to Gong Sui and Huang Ba , two model officials in the Han period noted for their administrative talents. For their biographies, see Han Shu , j 89 in Ershiwushi 1: 0585d–0587a. Their last names are frequently mentioned together in classical poetry.

4. Zhuo and Lu: these refer to Zhuo Mao and Lu Gong , another two officials in the Later Han period noted for being able administrators. See their biographies in Hou Han Shu , j 55, in Ershiwushi 1: 0749c–0750d.

5. No-Option Bridge: first mentioned in JW 1, chapter 11, during the Tang emperor Taizong’s journey from Hell back to life, the name Naihe ( = ), “Without alternative or remedy,” may have been a popular corruption of the River Naihe () in Shandong province. According to the Qing yitong zhi , there is another bridge, the Gold-Silver Bridge , southwest of the bridge proper. Popular legends locate the river’s origin in Hell: the blood of damned souls and demons is supposed to flow in the Neihe. The extreme height and narrowness of the bridge are such that anyone trying to walk across it inevitably falls into the river; hence its name.

CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT

1. Yellow cranes bring letters: this refers to the Yellow Crane Letter and Blue Phoenix Script/Letter . Daoist transcendents or immortals are thought to send their communications by means of mythical birds so named.

2. From antiquity, it has been customary to refer to immortals or transcendents (i.e., xian ) and later, most Daoists, as feathered scholars (yushi ) or feathered travelers (yuke ). Upon success in cultivation, according to textual accounts, the adept would sprout feathers all over his body, sometimes even wings like Christian angels, so that they could ascend to Heaven. See SCC, V/2: 96–113.

3. Former years: the narrative here refers back to the account in JW 1, chapter 8.

4. Here a reference to the diamond incorruptible body of Buddhahood.

5. A small bottomless boat: . The recurrent metaphor that studs the huge corpora of Chan scriptures collected in the Buddhist Canon (Taishō shinshū dai-zōkyō cited as T in this work), the Xuzangjing , and the Dainihon zokuzōkyō is either wudi chuan or meidi chuan . Its various meanings have different references as follows: (a) contradictory functionality (e.g., a bottomless bowl or a stringless zither , in “Shiwu wenda ,” collected in Rentian yanmu , j 6, in #2006, T 48: 331c–32a); (b) the state of religious or spiritual maturity (e.g., natural ripening of fruits , , , , in Jingde chuandeng lu , j 6, # 2056, T 51: 332c); (c) the state of natural transcendence (e.g., “dwelling on hairless ground, mounting a bottomless boat that is carried by the moon and moved by the wind , , ,” in Hongzhi Chanshi guanglu , j 5, # 2001, T 48: 71c); (d) the bottomless boat’s equation with mental purification and the sacred West (e.g., “, ,” in Wuyi Yuanlai Chanshi guanglu , j 20, # 1435, Xuzangjing 72: 313b); (e) as vehicle of soteric crossing to “the other shore” of enlightenment (e.g., “, ,” in ibid., 311a); (f) as metaphor for salvific pefection (e.g., “,” in Wudeng huiyuan xulüe , j 2, # 1566, Xuzangjing 80: 494b); and (g) a metaphor for death (e.g., “, , , ,” in Xu xhiyue lu , j 5, # 1579, Xuzangjing 84: 56c). Virtually all seven shades of metaphoric meaning are discernible in this episode of the novel. I am indebted to Professor Qiancheng Li of Louisiana State University for his timely assistance in tracking the huge cache of references. In a recent essay, “Sacred Teaching and Facetious Talk: Playing with Meanings in the Shidetang Journey to the West ,” Bulletin of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy Academia Sinica 36 (March 2010): 12–13, Liu Chiung-yun also emphasized the metaphor’s preponderant appearance in Chan writings. What she failed to realize is that this might be exactly why the XYJ author made brilliant use of it in this crucial episode of the novel, given the devotion of Quanzhen Daoists to Chan discourse.

6. The floating corpse: as I have suggested in a previous study, the image here may represent an ingenious conflation of two religious metaphors for the attainment of salvific transcendence. In Buddhism, the image points to the symbol of “casting one’s shell or body , ,” one already used prominently in JW 1, chapter 12, in the poem celebrating the Tang emperor’s convening the Land and Water Mass that led to Tripitaka’s selection as the scripture pilgrim. In Daoism, the image may point to the familiar teaching on “deliverance by borrowing a corpse or shijie .” See CJ, p. 151–52. The episode thus dramatizes the first line of this chapter’s titular couplet: “Only when ape and horse are tamed will shells be cast.”

7. Six-six senses: liuliu chen , the intensive form of the six guas, the six impure qualities engendered by the objects and organs of sense: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and idea.

8. In translating this catalog of Buddhist writings, I use the original Sanskrit or Pali volumes whenever possible. The several volumes that have eluded identification even after extensive research are given in literal translation of the Chinese. The mixture of known authentic Buddhist scriptures with what might have well been some volumes of fictive creation in this chapter, narrated twice with same volumes but different number of scrolls (presumably in the narration to distinguish the “wordless” texts from the inscripturated ones bestowed during the second time), has caused considerable critical controversy. See two informative studies by Professor Cao Bingjian as follows: “Xiyouji zhong suozai fojiao jingmu bingfei luzi Shaoshi shangfang bicong ,” Ming Qing xiaoshuo yanjiu , 3 (2006): 145–50; and “Xiyouji zhong suojian fojiao jingmu kao ,” Henan daxue xuebao , 44/1 (Jan. 2004): 79–82.

9. On the significance of this canonical number of 5,048, see JW 4, chapter 88, note 7.

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

1. Double three, or three times three (sansan ), which equals nine, the number of perfection that is used in both Buddhist and Daoist (especially alchemical lore that utilizes hexagramatical symbols derived from the Classic of Change) writings. See JW 1, chapter 1, note 16; JW 2, chapter 36, note 21. In the correlation of the lunar cycle with hexgramatical representation, the first quarter of the moon is symbolized by Tai , , with three broken (yin ) lines on top and three unbroken (yang ) lines on the bottom. The last quarter of the moon, on the other hand, is symbolized by Pi , , with the position of the yinyang lines exactly reversed. The alchemical process as correlated with the lunar cycle is thus named Double Three.

2. Chapter numbers throughout this catalog refer to those of the full-length novel, The Journey to the West, 4 vols. (of which this volume is the fourth).

3. Kinship of the Three: likely a reference to a famous text, the full title of which is Zhou Yi cantong qi (Token for the agreement of the Three in accordance with the Classic of Change). Tradition considers the work to be the earliest text of alchemical theory by Wei Boyang of the second century CE. No extant text of such antiquity has survived, and the some thirty recensions of the work we now have (with rhyming anachronisms and emergent prosodic tonal regulations) not only present a complex history of textual transmission but also indicate the formation of the received text at a date several centuries later. See SCC V/3: 50–75; ET 2: 1289–92. As noted in JW 1, item 21 in part III of the introduction, this and the next line of the poem are cited verbatim from a quatrain (poem #27) from Zhang Boduan’s Wuzhen pian, in DZ 263, 4: 729.

4. Tripitaka is recalling incidents of the episode narrated in chapters 47–49.

5. Advaya: buer , no second or nonduality; the one and undivided reality of the Buddha-nature.

6. The original face: in both Chan and Quanzhen discourse, enlightenment may be paraphrased by, among other formulations, the familiar adage: the recognition of one’s original appearance .

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED

1. A great event: literally, the Grand Mass of Land and Water.

2. Xiangchun: , Cedrela odorata, a kind of fragrant, slightly spicy plant.

3. The several kinds of ferns, jue and wei , enumerated here (Pteris, Osmunda, Vincetoxicum) have edible young roots. In addition, some varieties yield rhizomes, which are ground into flour and sweetened as a dessert.

4. Fei-nuts: , Torreya nucifera.

5. Chinese olives: ganlan or Canarium. Oblong and pointed, either green or shriveled during drying, these fruits do not quite resemble the Mediterranean variety.

6. Tender stalks: cigu , Sagittaria sagittfolia.

7. The composition refers to the “Preface to the Holy Religion (Shengjiaoxu ),” authored by the emperor historically in 648 CE, in gratitude for the newly completed translation by the priest Xuanzang of the entire Yogācārya-bhūmi Śāstra. See the FSZ, j 6, in SZZSHB, pp. 145–47. The text of the FSZ is also collected in The Buddhist Canon (see # 2053 in T 50: 0256a–0257a), but it contains minor variations from other versions, such as those by calligraphers and preserved in the Forest of Stele Inscriptions . As it will be noted later, the novel’s version also embodies deliberate changes possibly made by the 1592 author to render their content consistent with other narrative details.

8. Dyadic Models: eryi (in older texts, the term often appears as liangyi ), most likely a reference to the twin forces of darkness and light (i.e., yin and yang), themselves also regarded by the Chinese as symbolic of the female and male. In the Great Commentary on The Classic of Change we have the statement: “there is in Change the Supreme Ultimate, which gives birth to the Dyadic Models. The Dyadic Models give birth to the Four Images; the Four Images give birth to the Eight Trigrams , , , .” See SSJZS 1: 82a. In a chapter on the birth of music from “measurement ,” a text like the Lüshi chunqiu , j 5, 3a (SBBY) asserts: “[music] has its origin in the Ultimate One. The Ultimate One brings forth the Dyadic Models, and the Dyadic Models bring forth Yin and Yang , , .” For the meaning of the Ultimate or Great One, see the entry on “Taiyi” in ET 2: 956–69.

9. A radiant dream: a reference to the story of Emperor Ming of the Han (r. 58–75 CE), who dreamed that a golden deity was flying in front of his palace. Asked to explain its meaning the following morning, one of his ministers deciphered the dream representation as the flying Buddha from India. The emperor accepted this interpretation and decided to make further investigation. Envoys dispatched abroad eventually returned, “bringing back with them the Sutra in Forty-two Sections, which was received by the emperor and deposited in a temple constructed outisde the walls of the capital, Lo-yang.” The imperial action was generally regarded as the formal introduction of Buddhism in China. See Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (Princeton, 1964), pp. 29–30.

10. Thirty-two marks: the body of Buddha, a “wheel-king (cakravarti),” is said to have thirty-two lakaas, or special physical marks or signs.

11. At this point, the XYJ text differs from the FSZ text (j6) in SZZSHB, p. 146, which reads: “, , , . , , , However, the true religion is so difficult to uphold that there can hardly be a unified interpretation of its fundamental principles, whereas heterodox learning is so easy to follow that both the right and the deviant flourish at the same time. For this reason, the views on emptiness and being might have varied according to customs, while the division into Great and Small Vehicles might have arisen in response to the times.” The two sentences in the XYJ text prior to the reference to Xuanzang might have been its author’s own interpolation, or they might have come from another textual tradition.

12. Three forms of emptiness: sankong , three kinds of void. The phrase refers to the void, no form, and no desire (, , ) as three means of deliverance. See FXDCD, p. 153d.

13. Four forms of patience: that is, the siren , the four kinds of kānti, or the endurance under shame, hatred, physical hardship, and in pursuit of faith.

14. The FSZ j 6, in SZZSHB, p. 147, has seventeen years in accordance with other historical records. But the XYJ author, as we have seen in several previous chapters, had altered definitively the length of the pilgrimage to fourteen years so as to make the sum of days correspond to 5,048, the number of one canon.

15. Trees beneath which Buddha himself was said to have attained enlightenment.

16. Eight rivers of India: bashui . They are the Ganges, Humna, Sarasvatī, Hirayavatī, Mahī, Indus, Oxus, and Sītā.

17. Thirty-five titles: the difficult word here is bu , which may be read as title or volume. Whatever the case, the emperor’s preface in the novel again differs from the FSZ text in SZZSHB, p. 147: “, , From all the nations he visited he acquired altogether six hundred and fifty-seven titles/volumes of important writings of the Tripitaka.”

18. Will proclaim: I use the future tense here to make the emperor’s point of view consistent, since it is obvious that in the narrative, Tripitaka has not (and will not be) engaged in any work of scriptural translation, as the historical Xuanzang did for two decades after his homecoming. The novel’s denouement that celebrates the apotheosis of the five pilgrims thus conclusively takes the historical figure of the human protagonist out of history.

19. A burning house: this is a pointed allusion to the famous parable of the burning house as told by Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra , or Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra. Faced with a sudden disaster of his house catching fire and too many children for him to rescue in the burning building, the allegorized Buddha as distraught father resorted to the method of expedient or skillful means (fangbian , Upāya). Using three kinds of carts drawn by bullock, goat, and deer (san che ), he succeeded in luring his children outside to safety. See The Lotus Sutra, translated from the Chinese by Senchu Murano (Tokyo, 1974), pp. 54–57. In the history of Chinese religions, the metaphor of the three forms of cart as vehicles of salvation became most popular in the Quanzhen discourse on internal alchemy. As noted in both the introduction and annotations of the present novel, the figure thus underlies also the engaging episode of the Cart Slow Kingdom in chapters 44–46.

20. The FSZ text in j 6, SZZSHB, p. 147, reads: , illuminating the darkened waters of affects.

21. The emperor’s declaration here was actually a note written in reply to a formal memorial of thanks submitted by the historical Xuanzang. See FSZ, j 6, in SZZSHB, p. 148.

22. Bronze and stone inscriptions: jinshi . The FSZ text has boda , learned.

23. Wild-Goose Pagoda Temple: . This specious statement by Xiao Yu represents another deliberate conflation of historical time to accommodate the novel’s fictional narration. There are actually two surviving historical structures that were built as a pagoda or stūpa. The storied edifice was first proposed by priest Xuanzang in 652 to the newly crowned emperor Gaozong for housing the huge library of scriptures he brought back from India. Because the architectural designs he submitted were ambitious and costly, the emperor compromised and permitted only a smaller version in the Ci’en Monastery, where the priest was residing and undertaking continuous translation. The pagoda was named Wild Goose, but a still smaller version in later years was built in another monastery (Jianfu ) in the capital of Chang’an. The first and bigger one at the Ci’en Monastery thus took on the name of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda (Dayan ta ) to distinguish it from the Small Wild Goose. See FSZ, j 7, in SZZSHB, pp. 163–64 for Xuanzang’s proposal memorial; see http:baike.baidu.com/view/5516.htm for some modern photographs of the buildings.

24. Eight Classes of Supernatural Beings: , . They are deva, nāga, yaka, gandharva, asura, garua, kinnara, and mahoraga.

25. Fuses with Four Signs: the technical phrase here is “the harmonious fusion of Four Signs, hehe sixiang ” (the XYJ text inverts the first two words to accommodate tonal metrics). This line, along with the following one, draws on the extra-canonical late-Ming treatise, Xingming guizhi, in a crucial segment with appropriate diagram and the title, “Discourse on the Harmonious Fusion of the Four Signs ” (XMGZ-Taipei, pp. 117–19), to describe the completion of the elixir process. Pertinent sentences read:

Now the Four Signs are the Blue Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermillion Bird, and the Dark Turtle. The Five Phases are Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Dragon-Wood generates Fire, and both belong to the heart-mind. Imaging forth the numinous mystery prior to the ancestor [a direct allusion to Daodejing 4], they are the true nothing within the native something. If the heart-mind is unmoved, then the Dragon will sigh as the wind arises, and the Vermillion Bird will fold up its wings as the Primordial Breath congregates. . . . When the Four Signs fuse harmoniously and the Five Phases are squeezed together, they all meet by entering the Central Palace where the Great Elixir is perfected , , , , . , . , , , , . , , , . . . . , , .

The phrase, “when the Five Phases are squeezed together,” harks back directly to JW 1, chapter 2, when the Patriarch Subodhi imparted the secret formula to Sun Wukong. There the poetic formula ends with the two lines: “Squeeze the Five Phases jointly, use them back and forth— / When that’s done, be a Buddha or immortal at will.” Comparison will show that the XMGZ’s lesson here accords completely with that of the Patriarch’s formula. The five pilgrims’ apotheosis and elevation thus also recapitulate one central theme of the novel, that the journey they undertook for fourteen years may be troped as a process of making the internal elixir.