常羲

The Classic of the Great Wilderness, West: a woman is bathing the moon. Di Jun's wife Changxi bore twelve moons, and this is where she first bathed them. Seventeen characters. That is the whole of Changxi's appearance in the Shanhaijing. Seventeen characters, one action, one identity, one number. Compare Xihe: beyond the southeast sea, among the sweet waters, lies the land of Xihe; a woman is named Xihe, and she is bathing the sun in the Sweet Pool; Xihe is the wife of Di Jun, and she bore ten suns. Twenty-six characters. The extra nine are place names. Changxi has no country, no sweet pool, no fusang tree. She is only "a woman bathing the moon." A mother with no address. The number first. Twelve. Twelve months. Twelve earthly branches. Twelve double-hours. Jupiter circles the sky in twelve years, which is why it is called the year star. Twelve is a number you can count in the sky. But it is not a tidy number. A synodic month is twenty-nine days, twelve hours, forty-four minutes. Twelve of them make three hundred and fifty-four days, eight hours, forty-nine minutes. A tropical year is three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-nine minutes. A gap of eleven days. Which means: with twelve months only, in three years the first month of spring has drifted into summer. The Chinese solution was the intercalary month. Seven intercalary months in nineteen years. The cycle was already understood in the Spring and Autumn period and is stated plainly in the Zuo Commentary. So behind "bore twelve moons" sits a very complex piece of astronomy. A mother bears twelve moons, one for each month. Twelve months pass, and the year has not finished. What happens to the remaining eleven days? The ancients handed the problem to the leap month. The leap month has no name, no solstice, no god. It is the extra stretch outside the twelve moons, a patch in the calendar. So Changxi's twelve moons are not enough. Every year there is a stretch of days belonging to no moon at all. Now "bathe." The moon, like the sun, rises from the sea or the horizon. Rising, it is red, large, its edge unsteady. But the moon has a feature the sun does not: it changes shape. On the first day it is invisible. By the third it is a thin hook. By the seventh, half. On the fifteenth, full. By the twenty-second, half again. On the thirtieth, gone. In one month the moon runs through eight shapes. How did the ancients explain that? One explanation: the moon is being washed. Each wash leaves it thinner; washed to nothing, it grows back. Another: the moon is a rabbit pounding medicine, or a toad, or a man chopping a cassia tree that heals itself. The dark maria are read as a picture. A third is Changxi. She washes the moon once a month; what comes out of the bath is new and round; then the moon soils itself and wanes, and a month later needs washing again. "This is where she first bathed them." The first time. Twelve children, first bath. Then what became of her. Her name has three forms: Changxi, Changyi, Shangyi. Changyi is a consort of Di Ku and mother of Di Zhi, and appears in the Records of Emperors. Chang'e is the wife of Hou Yi, who stole the elixir and fled to the moon. Many scholars hold that Changxi, Changyi, and Chang'e are one name deformed across eras. Changxi is the moon mother; Chang'e is the moon goddess. One gives birth to moons; one lives in one. If that line holds, the story completes itself: She bore twelve moons, bathed them, sent them up. Millennia later her name belongs to a woman who stole a drug and lives alone in the lunar palace with a rabbit, watching a tree that will not fall. From mother to widow. Something was dropped in the transfer: twelve. Chang'e has one person, one palace, one rabbit. The twelve moons are gone; one remains. And the number twelve survives anyway. It lives in the calendar, in the branches, in the zodiac. Every new year we say this is the year of the dragon, of the snake — one of the twelve children Changxi bore. Nobody remembers they had a mother. One last thing. Xihe and Changxi are the two wives of Di Jun. One in the southeast, one in the southwest. One governs days, one governs months. It is a very neat symmetry. Neat enough to look arranged rather than grown. The four Great Wilderness chapters are indeed built on the four directions: east, south, west, north, each with a set of gods, a set of countries, a set of mountains and waters. Xihe is in the south, Changxi in the west. The arrangement gives every direction its content. So Changxi may not have been forgotten. She may have been assigned. Inside a four-square frame she only needs to cover the west and the moon. Nothing else. So she gets seventeen characters. Seventeen characters, twelve moons, one action. It is the most economical entry in Chinese myth.

"มีหญิงกำลังอาบดวงจันทร์ ฉางซี มเหสีของตี้จวิ้น ให้กำเนิดดวงจันทร์สิบสองดวง ที่นี่นางเริ่มอาบพวกมัน" สิบเจ็ดตัวอักษร — ทั้งหมดของฉางซีในซานไห่จิง เทียบกับซีเหอผู้มีแคว้น มีสระ มีต้นไม้ และยี่สิบหกตัวอักษร ฉางซีไม่มีแม้ที่อยู่ "สิบสอง" คือจำนวนเดือน จำนวนกิ่งดิน จำนวนปีที่ดาวพฤหัสโคจรครบรอบ แต่หนึ่งเดือนจันทรคติ 29.53 วัน สิบสองเดือนได้ 354 วัน ขาดปีสุริยคติ 11 วัน ถ้าใช้เพียงสิบสองเดือน สามปีผ่านไปเดือนอ้ายจะเลื่อนไปอยู่กลางฤดูร้อน จีนแก้ด้วยการเพิ่มเดือนอธิกมาส เจ็ดครั้งในสิบเก้าปี — ความรู้ทางดาราศาสตร์ที่ซับซ้อนมาก เดือนที่เพิ่มขึ้นไม่มีชื่อ ไม่มีเทพ เป็นเพียงส่วนเกินของปฏิทิน "อาบ" คือคำอธิบายการขึ้นของดวงจันทร์: แดง ใหญ่ ขอบสั่นไหว และเปลี่ยนรูปร่างทุกคืน — ข้างขึ้นข้างแรมแปดระยะ คำอธิบายหนึ่งคือ: พระจันทร์ถูกอาบน้ำ ทุกครั้งที่อาบจะผอมลงจนหาย แล้วค่อยอ้วนกลับมา ต่อมาชื่อของนางกลายเป็นฉางเอ๋อ ผู้กินยาอมตะแล้วเหาะไปอยู่บนดวงจันทร์ จากแม่ สู่หญิงม่ายที่อยู่คนเดียวในวังจันทรา "สิบสอง" หายไป เหลือดวงเดียว แต่ตัวเลขสิบสองยังอยู่ — ในปฏิทิน ในกิ่งดิน ในปีนักษัตร ทุกปีใหม่เราพูดถึงปีมะโรง ปีมะเส็ง ซึ่งเป็นหนึ่งในสิบสองลูกของนาง เพียงไม่มีใครจำได้ว่าพวกมันมีแม่

"Seorang wanita sedang memandikan bulan. Changxi, isteri Di Jun, melahirkan dua belas bulan, dan di sinilah ia mula memandikannya." Tujuh belas aksara — keseluruhan kemunculan Changxi dalam Shanhaijing. Bandingkan Xihe yang mempunyai negeri, kolam, pokok dan dua puluh enam aksara; Changxi tiada tempat tinggal. "Dua belas" ialah bilangan bulan, bilangan cabang bumi, bilangan tahun Jupiter melengkapkan orbit. Tetapi satu bulan sinodik 29.53 hari; dua belas bulan hanya 354 hari, kurang sebelas hari daripada tahun suria. Jika hanya dua belas bulan digunakan, selepas tiga tahun bulan pertama musim bunga beralih ke musim panas. China menyelesaikannya dengan bulan lompat: tujuh kali dalam sembilan belas tahun — pengetahuan astronomi yang rumit. Bulan lompat tiada nama, tiada dewa; ia hanya tampalan dalam kalendar. "Mandikan" ialah catatan tentang bulan terbit: merah, besar, tepi bergetar, dan berubah bentuk setiap malam — lapan fasa. Satu tafsiran: bulan dimandikan. Setiap kali dimandikan ia menipis hingga hilang, lalu membesar semula. Kemudian namanya menjadi Chang'e, wanita yang mencuri ubat keabadian dan terbang ke bulan. Dari ibu kepada balu yang tinggal sendirian di istana bulan. "Dua belas" hilang; tinggal satu. Tetapi angka dua belas kekal — dalam kalendar, dalam cabang bumi, dalam zodiak. Setiap tahun baru kita menyebut tahun naga, tahun ular: salah satu daripada dua belas anak Changxi. Hanya tiada yang ingat mereka ada ibu.

"Một người nữ đang tắm mặt trăng. Thường Hy, vợ Đế Tuấn, sinh mười hai mặt trăng, và đây là nơi nàng bắt đầu tắm chúng." Mười bảy chữ — toàn bộ sự xuất hiện của Thường Hy trong Sơn Hải Kinh. So với Hy Hòa có nước, có ao, có cây và hai mươi sáu chữ; Thường Hy không có cả nơi ở. "Mười hai" là số tháng, số địa chi, số năm Sao Mộc đi hết một vòng. Nhưng một tháng âm lịch là 29,53 ngày; mười hai tháng chỉ 354 ngày, thiếu mười một ngày so với năm dương lịch. Nếu chỉ dùng mười hai tháng, sau ba năm tháng giêng sẽ trôi vào giữa mùa hè. Trung Quốc giải quyết bằng tháng nhuận: bảy lần trong mười chín năm — một hiểu biết thiên văn rất phức tạp. Tháng nhuận không có tên, không có thần; nó chỉ là miếng vá của lịch. "Tắm" là ghi chép về lúc trăng mọc: đỏ, lớn, mép rung, và đổi hình mỗi đêm — tám pha. Một cách lý giải: trăng được tắm. Mỗi lần tắm nó gầy đi đến mất hẳn, rồi lại béo trở lại. Về sau tên nàng thành Hằng Nga, người trộm thuốc bất tử rồi bay lên cung trăng. Từ người mẹ đến góa phụ sống một mình trong cung trăng. "Mười hai" biến mất; chỉ còn một. Nhưng con số mười hai vẫn còn — trong lịch, trong địa chi, trong mười hai con giáp. Mỗi năm mới ta nói năm Thìn, năm Tỵ: một trong mười hai đứa con của Thường Hy. Chỉ không ai còn nhớ chúng có mẹ.

"Seorang wanita sedang memandikan bulan. Changxi, istri Di Jun, melahirkan dua belas bulan, dan di sinilah ia mulai memandikannya." Tujuh belas aksara — keseluruhan kemunculan Changxi dalam Shanhaijing. Bandingkan Xihe yang punya negeri, kolam, pohon dan dua puluh enam aksara; Changxi tidak punya tempat tinggal. "Dua belas" adalah jumlah bulan, jumlah cabang bumi, jumlah tahun Jupiter menyelesaikan orbit. Tetapi satu bulan sinodik 29,53 hari; dua belas bulan hanya 354 hari, kurang sebelas hari dari tahun surya. Jika hanya dua belas bulan dipakai, setelah tiga tahun bulan pertama musim semi bergeser ke musim panas. Tiongkok menyelesaikannya dengan bulan kabisat: tujuh kali dalam sembilan belas tahun — pengetahuan astronomi yang rumit. Bulan kabisat tidak punya nama, tidak punya dewa; ia hanya tambalan dalam kalender. "Mandikan" adalah catatan tentang bulan terbit: merah, besar, tepi bergetar, dan berubah bentuk setiap malam — delapan fase. Satu tafsir: bulan dimandikan. Setiap kali dimandikan ia menipis hingga hilang, lalu membesar lagi. Kemudian namanya menjadi Chang'e, wanita yang mencuri obat keabadian dan terbang ke bulan. Dari ibu menjadi janda yang tinggal sendirian di istana bulan. "Dua belas" hilang; tinggal satu. Tetapi angka dua belas bertahan — dalam kalender, dalam cabang bumi, dalam zodiak. Setiap tahun baru kita menyebut tahun naga, tahun ular: salah satu dari dua belas anak Changxi. Hanya tidak ada yang ingat mereka punya ibu.