化蛇

The Classic of Central Mountains: three hundred li west is Mount Yang. Much stone, no grass or trees. The Yang River issues from it and flows north into the Yi. In it are many Huashe: human face, jackal body, bird wings, moving like a snake. Its cry is like a shout of rebuke. When it appears, the town floods. Count the animals in this entry: human, jackal, bird, snake. Four. Human face, jackal body, bird wings, snake movement. This is one of the most aggressively assembled images in the book. Most creatures are two-in-one — human-faced tiger, ox-shaped with a snake's tail. Huashe is four-in-one. And the four are not random. Each maps to a part: face (identification), body (mass), wings (means of motion), movement (means of motion). The first two say what it looks like; the last two say how it moves. Something that looks human, has a jackal's body, has wings, and crawls like a snake. Treated as a single organism, this can never be drawn. Treated as a record of one sighting, it works immediately. What appears on the water at once when a flood comes through? A human face — not a living one, a floating corpse, the face swollen and deformed. A jackal's body — dogs, jackals, pigs, sheep washed down. A bird's wings — waterbirds startled up by the flood, or a dead bird with its wings spread, riding the surface. The motion of a snake — real snakes, which come out of their burrows in numbers before a flood and climb for high ground; and snakes swimming in the water. After the water drops, these things are left on the flats, overlapping. From a distance: human face, jackal body, bird wings, snake movement. And "its cry is like a shout of rebuke." A flood does not go "splash." It has a low-frequency roar, and it has the crack of water hitting an obstacle. But in a mountain valley the closest human analogue is a rebuke — short, harsh, angry, cut off. Hearing that inside a flood, a person's first thought is: someone is shouting at me. Then the last clause: when it appears, the town floods. That clause settles the nature of the entry. It is not "Huashe appeared, therefore the flood came." It is: when the flood comes, Huashe can be seen. The "when it appears" formula in the Shanhaijing frequently runs the causality backwards. The beast does not bring the disaster; the disaster is when the beast becomes visible. The beast is the visible portion of the disaster. So what is Huashe? Huashe is the flood itself, written as an animal. The name is exactly right. Hua means to transform. Water transforms into a beast; disaster takes on a shape. Mount Yang: much stone, no grass. A rock mountain that grows nothing. The Yang River comes out of it and runs north into the Yi, a tributary of the Yellow River, through one of the storm centres of western Henan. Rock does not absorb rain. When it rains, all of it comes down at once. The geography is accurate: stone mountain, steep stream, big river below. The standard configuration for a flash flood. The ancients wrote that flash flood as a thing with a human face and a jackal's body, with wings, crawling like a snake, and swearing. They were not inventing. They were describing something they had seen and could not name.

เขาหยาง เป็นภูเขาหิน ไม่มีต้นไม้ แม่น้ำหยางไหลเหนือลงสู่อี๋สุย ในน้ำมีงูฮว่าฉอ: หน้ามนุษย์ ตัวหมาจิ้งจอก ปีกนก เลื้อยเหมือนงู เสียงเหมือนตวาด ลองนับสัตว์: คน หมาจิ้งจอก นก งู — สี่อย่าง ถ้าเป็น "ตัวเดียว" วาดไม่ได้ แต่ถ้าเป็น "บันทึกการพบเห็นครั้งหนึ่ง" ก็เข้าใจทันที เวลาน้ำท่วม จะมี: หน้าคน (ศพลอย swollen), ตัวหมาจิ้งจอก/หมา/หมูที่ถูกพัดมา, ปีกนกน้ำที่ตกใจบิน, งูที่หนีน้ำขึ้นที่สูง ทั้งหมดลอยปนกัน บนผืนน้ำ ระยะไกลก็เห็นเป็น "หน้ามนุษย์ ตัวหมาจิ้งจอก ปีกนก เลื้อยเหมือนงู" "เห็นเมื่อไรเมืองนั้นน้ำท่วม" — ไม่ได้แปลว่ามันทำให้ท่วม แต่ท่วมแล้วถึงเห็นมัน

Gunung Yang: gunung batu, tiada tumbuhan. Sungai Yang mengalir ke utara ke Sungai Yi. Di dalamnya banyak Huashe: muka manusia, badan serigala, sayap burung, bergerak seperti ular. Bunyinya seperti hardikan. Kira binatangnya: manusia, serigala, burung, ular — empat. Sebagai satu makhluk, tidak boleh dilukis. Sebagai catatan satu penampakan, terus masuk akal. Bila banjir datang: muka manusia (mayat terapung, bengkak), badan serigala/anjing/babi hanyut, sayap burung air terkejut terbang, ular naik ke tempat tinggi. Semua terapung bercampur. Dari jauh nampak seperti "muka manusia, badan serigala, sayap burung, gerak ular." "Muncul, bandar banjir" — bukan ia menyebabkan banjir, tetapi bila banjir baru ia kelihatan.

Núi Dương: núi đá, không cây. Sông Dương chảy bắc vào sông Y. Trong sông nhiều Hóa Xà: mặt người, mình chó rừng, cánh chim, bò như rắn. Tiếng như quát mắng. Đếm loài: người, chó rừng, chim, rắn — bốn. Nếu là "một sinh vật" thì không thể vẽ. Nếu là "ghi chép một lần chứng kiến" thì hiểu ngay. Khi lũ đến: mặt người (xác trôi, sưng), mình chó rừng/chó/lợn bị cuốn, cánh chim nước giật mình bay, rắn bò lên chỗ cao. Tất cả trôi lẫn nhau. Từ xa thấy thành "mặt người, mình chó rừng, cánh chim, bò như rắn." "Xuất hiện thì thành lụt" — không phải nó gây lụt, mà lụt đến mới thấy nó.

Gunung Yang: gunung batu, tanpa tumbuhan. Sungai Yang mengalir ke utara ke Sungai Yi. Di dalamnya banyak Huashe: wajah manusia, tubuh serigala, sayap burung, bergerak seperti ular. Bunyinya seperti bentakan. Hitung hewannya: manusia, serigala, burung, ular — empat. Sebagai satu makhluk, tidak bisa dilukis. Sebagai catatan satu penampakan, langsung masuk akal. Saat banjir datang: wajah manusia (mayat terapung, bengkak), tubuh serigala/anjing/babi hanyut, sayap burung air terkejut terbang, ular naik ke tempat tinggi. Semua terapung bercampur. Dari jauh tampak seperti "wajah manusia, tubuh serigala, sayap burung, gerak ular." "Muncul, kota banjir" — bukan ia menyebabkan banjir, tetapi saat banjir baru ia terlihat.