骄虫

The Classic of Central Mountains, sixth section: the head of Mount Gaodi is Mount Pingfeng. South you see the Yi and the Luo; east you see Mount Gucheng. No grass, no trees, no water — sand and stone. A barren mountain. On it lives Jiaochong. Human form, two heads. "He is the stinging insect" — the class of things that sting: bees, scorpions, ants. "He is truly the house of honey" — the hive. So Jiaochong is the god of bees. More precisely, the colony itself, made into a god. Why two heads? Look at a bee. Head, thorax, abdomen, with a waist pinched between. A bee on a flower, seen at the wrong angle, loses that waist; what remains is two masses. In ancient depiction, insects were often drawn segment by segment — two lobes read as two heads. There is a second layer. Inside a hive the population runs two lives at once: foragers outside, nurses and guards within. One nest, two modes of existence, which from outside looks like two-headed creatures sharing one body. Then comes the strangest line in the entry: to sacrifice, take one rooster, avert the ill, and do not kill it. Avert — rang — is the rite of driving off disaster. Do not kill. Almost every sacrificial rule in the Shanhaijing says "one sheep," "one dog," "one fowl," and means: slaughter it and present it. Blood offering. Here, exceptionally, the text adds: and do not kill. Bring the rooster, then let it go. Such clauses are rare in the whole book. Why spare the bee god's offering? Because bees die. A colony of tens of thousands looks thriving and is extremely fragile. Pesticide, a cold snap, a dearth of nectar, a mite — any one of these can collapse a hive in days. When a colony collapses, the dead pile up at the entrance in layers. Beekeepers fear exactly this. And the ancient response to collapse was: do not disturb it. Do not open the nest, do not kill bees, do not cut the tree the nest hangs in. So "avert and do not kill" is probably not mercy. It is technique. It is the principle of minimum intervention, applied to something you cannot control and cannot do without. Honey was the only sweetness available. Wax was the only mouldable material. The health of the hives bore directly on how the year would go. A barren mountain, a two-headed bee god, a rule against killing. What sits between those three things is an entire body of apicultural experience. And the name: jiao means arrogant, overbearing. A colony is overbearing. Touch it once and the whole nest comes out. The ancients named it well.

เขาผิงเฟิง (ระหว่างแม่น้ำอี๋กับลั่ว) เป็นภูเขาว่างเปล่า ไม่มีต้นไม้ ไม่มีน้ำ มีแต่ทรายกับหิน บนนั้นมีเทพชื่อเจียวฉง ร่างเป็นคน สองหัว "เป็นเจ้าแห่งแมลงต่อย รังผึ้งคือเรือนของเขา" สองหัวอาจมาจากการมองผึ้ง: หัว-อก-ท้อง แต่เอวบางจนมองไม่เห็น เหลือเป็นสองก้อน ที่น่าสนใจที่สุดคือพิธี: ถวายไก่ตัวผู้หนึ่งตัว "แล้วปล่อย ไม่ฆ่า" — กฎแบบนี้หายากมากในซานไห่จิง เหตุผลอาจไม่ใช่เมตตา แต่เป็นเทคนิค: รังผึ้งพังง่ายมาก อย่าไปยุ่ง อย่าเปิด อย่าฆ่า น้ำผึ้งคือความหวานเดียวในยุคนั้น

Gunung Pingfeng (antara Sungai Yi dan Luo) — gunung kosong: tiada pokok, tiada air, hanya pasir dan batu. Di situ ada dewa bernama Jiaochong. Tubuh manusia, dua kepala. "Raja serangga penyengat, sarang madu ialah rumahnya." Dua kepala mungkin dari cara melihat lebah: kepala-dada-perut, tetapi pinggang terlalu halus untuk dilihat, jadi nampak dua gumpalan. Yang paling menarik ialah upacara: seekor ayam jantan, "lepas, jangan sembelih" — syarat begini sangat jarang dalam Shanhaijing. Sebabnya mungkin bukan belas kasihan, tetapi teknik: sarang lebah mudah runtuh. Jangan ganggu, jangan buka, jangan bunuh. Madu satu-satunya manisan masa itu.

Núi Bình Phùng (giữa sông Y và Lạc) — núi trống: không cây, không nước, chỉ cát đá. Trên đó có thần Kiêu Trùng. Mình người, hai đầu. "Chúa loài côn trùng chích, tổ ong là nhà của nó." Hai đầu có thể do cách nhìn con ong: đầu-ngực-bụng, nhưng eo quá nhỏ nên mắt chỉ thấy hai khối. Đáng chú nhất là lễ: dâng một gà trống, "rồi thả, không giết" — điều khoản này cực hiếm trong Sơn Hải Kinh. Có lẽ không phải lòng nhân, mà là kỹ thuật: tổ ong rất dễ sụp. Đừng động, đừng mở, đừng giết. Mật ong là vị ngọt duy nhất thời đó.

Gunung Pingfeng (antara Sungai Yi dan Luo) — gunung kosong: tanpa pohon, tanpa air, hanya pasir dan batu. Di situ ada dewa bernama Jiaochong. Tubuh manusia, dua kepala. "Raja serangga penyengat, sarang madu adalah rumahnya." Dua kepala mungkin dari cara melihat lebah: kepala-dada-perut, tetapi pinggang terlalu halus untuk terlihat, jadi tampak dua gumpalan. Yang paling menarik adalah upacaranya: seekor ayam jantan, "lepas, jangan sembelih" — syarat seperti ini sangat jarang dalam Shanhaijing. Sebabnya mungkin bukan belas kasih, melainkan teknik: sarang lebah mudah runtuh. Jangan ganggu, jangan buka, jangan bunuh. Madu satu-satunya manisan saat itu.