帝之二女

The Classic of Central Mountains: one hundred and ten li southeast is Mount Dongting. Gold above; silver and iron below. Among its trees, hawthorn, pear, orange, pomelo. Among its plants, orchid, lovage, peony, and chuanxiong. The two daughters of the High God dwell there, and they roam the deeps of the river. The winds of the Li and the Yuan meet over the deeps of the Xiaoxiang, there among the nine rivers; and they come and go only with wild wind and driving rain. Many strange gods are there, human in form, bearing snakes, holding snakes in their left and right hands. Many strange birds. Read the geography first. This passage is superbly written. Mount Dongting: gold on the heights, silver and iron below. The trees are hawthorn, pear, orange, pomelo. The plants are orchid, lovage, peony, chuanxiong. All four plants are aromatic — lovage and chuanxiong are medicines, peony is a flower, orchid speaks for itself. A mountain with metal at the top, fruit trees at the bottom, and fragrance in between. Only then the goddesses: the two daughters of the High God dwell there, and roam the deeps. The High God is usually read as Yao. The two daughters are Ehuang and Nüying. They married Shun; Shun died on a southern progress at Cangwu; the sisters followed as far as the Xiang River, wept, and their tears spotted the bamboo — which is why mottled bamboo is called Xiang bamboo — and then they went into the water. The Shanhaijing does not tell that story. It leaves four characters, "the two daughters of the High God," and one line: they roam the deeps of the river. The deeps — not the bank, not the sky. The bottom of the water. Two goddesses living on the lake bed, surfacing now and then. Then the finest sentence in the entry: the winds of the Li and the Yuan meet over the deeps of the Xiaoxiang, there among the nine rivers; and they come and go only with wild wind and driving rain. The Li and the Yuan come from the west. The Xiao and the Xiang come from the south. Four rivers converge at Dongting. And the winds meet over the deeps — wind meeting wind, on the water. This is not literary decoration. It is meteorology. Dongting is China's second-largest freshwater lake, over two thousand square kilometres, ringed by hills. In summer the lake surface heats, air rises, and cooler air drains down out of the surrounding valleys toward the centre. Four winds collide over open water, are forced upward, condense, and rain. That is the meeting. Four winds converging on the lake. And the rain such convergence produces is sudden, local, and violent. Boatmen on Dongting still speak of wind zones where a change of direction can capsize a boat inside a minute. So: they come and go only with wild wind and driving rain. This is not a goddess losing her temper. It is that when the goddesses appear, the weather is like this. Or rather: when the weather becomes like this, people say the goddesses have come out. Then the next line: many strange gods, human in form, bearing snakes, snakes in both hands. Snake-holding gods are a large class in the Shanhaijing, mostly tied to mountains and waters. A snake in the hand marks authority, and also control of water — a snake's body is the curve of a current, and snakes are sensitive to changes in air pressure. So the whole mountain reads: gold, silver, oranges, pomelo, fragrant herbs, mottled bamboo, two goddesses on the lake bed, driving rain, and a crowd of gods with snakes in their fists. It is the most southern scene in Chinese myth. Wet, fragrant, wealthy, dangerous. Centuries later Qu Yuan wrote the Xiang Jun and Xiang Furen — "the child of God has come down to the northern islet; my eyes strain, and I am sad" — and "the autumn wind sighs; Dongting ripples, and the leaves fall." The same two women. The same lake. From seventeen characters in the Shanhaijing to two long poems in the Nine Songs is several hundred years. The lake was still there. The winds still met. The rain still fell.

เขาต้งถิง: ข้างบนทอง ข้างล่างเงินและเหล็ก ต้นไม้มี hawthorn สาลี่ ส้ม ส้มโอ พืชมีกล้วยไม้ เลิฟเวจ พีโอนี ชวนเซียง — หอมทั้งหมด ที่นี่คือที่อยู่ของธิดาสององค์แห่งเทพสูงสุด (ง้อหวง-หนี่อิง) "ท่องไปในวังน้ำลึก" "ลมจากหลี่และหยวนปะทะกันเหนือเซียวเซียง" — นี่คือคำอธิบายอุตุนิยมวิทยาจริง: ทะเลสาบใหญ่ อากาศร้อนลอยขึ้น ลมจากหุบเขารอบด้านไหลเข้าหาศูนย์กลาง ปะทะกัน กลายเป็นฝน ดังนั้น "ออกมาทีไรก็พายุฝน" ไม่ใช่เทพโมโห แต่คือเมื่อฟ้าเป็นแบบนี้ คนก็บอกว่าเทพออกมา บนเขายังมีเทพถืองูทั้งสองมือ — สัญลักษณ์แห่งอำนาจและน้ำ

Gunung Dongting: emas di atas, perak dan besi di bawah. Pokok: hawthorn, pear, oren, limau bali. Tumbuhan: anggerik, lovage, peony, chuanxiong — semuanya berbau harum. Di sini tinggal dua puteri Dewa Agung (Ehuang dan Nüying). "Mereka merayau di lubuk sungai." "Angin Li dan Yuan bertemu di Xiaoxiang" — ini meteorologi sebenar: tasik besar, udara panas naik, angin dari lembah sekeliling mengalir ke tengah, bertembung, jadi hujan. Jadi "keluar masuk bawa ribut" bukan dewi merajuk, tetapi apabila cuaca jadi begini, orang kata dewa keluar. Ada juga dewa memegang ular di kedua tangan — lambang kuasa dan air.

Núi Động Đình: trên vàng, dưới bạc và sắt. Cây: sơn tra, lê, cam, bưởi. Cỏ: lan, xuyên khung, thược dược — đều thơm. Đây là nơi ở của hai người con gái Đế (Nga Hoàng, Nữ Anh). "Dạo chơi trong vực sâu." "Gió Lễ và Nguyên gặp nhau trên Tiêu Tương" — đây là khí tượng thật: hồ lớn, không khí nóng bốc lên, gió từ các thung lũng quanh hồ dồn vào giữa, gặp nhau, thành mưa. Nên "đi lại mang cuồng phong bạo vũ" không phải nữ thần nổi giận, mà khi trời như thế, người ta nói thần đã ra. Trên núi còn có thần cầm rắn hai tay — biểu tượng quyền lực và nước.

Gunung Dongting: emas di atas, perak dan besi di bawah. Pohon: hawthorn, pir, jeruk, jeruk bali. Tumbuhan: anggrek, lovage, peony, chuanxiong — semuanya harum. Di sini tinggal dua puteri Dewa Agung (Ehuang dan Nüying). "Mereka menjelajah lubuk sungai." "Angin Li dan Yuan bertemu di Xiaoxiang" — ini meteorologi nyata: danau besar, udara panas naik, angin dari lembah sekeliling mengalir ke tengah, bertabrakan, jadi hujan. Jadi "datang pergi membawa badai" bukan dewi merajuk, tetapi ketika cuaca jadi begini, orang berkata dewa keluar. Ada juga dewa memegang ular di kedua tangan — lambang kuasa dan air.