儵鱼

The Classic of Northern Mountains: three hundred li north is Mount Dai, jade above, green stone below. The Peng River rises there and flows west into Lake Bi. It teems with shu fish — shaped like chickens with red feathers, three tails, six feet, and four heads, chattering like magpies. Eat them, and sorrow ends. The shape is the absurd part. The last three characters are the beautiful part. The shape first: like a chicken, red feathers, three tails, six feet, four heads. Calling that a fish stretches the word past breaking. But "shaped like a chicken" may be the whole clue. Below Mount Dai runs the Peng, and its banks are thick with water birds. There is a bird called the water chicken — rail, moorhen — red bill, red legs, running through the reeds, skimming the surface when startled. From the bank, a flock thrashing in the shallows reads as red feathers, too many legs, too many heads crowded together. Hard to say whether that is one animal or several. The name is telling too. Shu means sudden, swift. In Zhuangzi, two deities named Shu and Hu personify the speed of time. Naming a fish "Swift" says it moves faster than the eye — a red blur. Three tails could be splashes. Six feet, the legs of a flock. Four heads, their heads. An eye that cannot keep up records a flock as a single animal. Then: eat it, and sorrow ends. Yi you — to make grief stop. This phrase occurs exactly once in the entire book. Every other medical note treats the body: swelling, scabies, abscess, possession, deafness. This one treats a feeling. The ancients were not ignorant of emotion. They simply rarely wrote it into a prescription. Here, a red-feathered, fast-running, four-chickens-in-a-trenchcoat fish is declared a cure for sadness. Why this one? Perhaps because watching it is already a cure — a flock of red birds skittering and shrieking and shoving each other is comic. Perhaps because eating it genuinely helped: good protein, or simply a good meal. The Book of Songs asks where to find the sorrow-forgetting plant, to set it by the north hall. Daylily became China's traditional emblem of forgetting care. The shu fish is the daylily of the water. A chicken-shaped fish, red-feathered, three tails, six feet, four heads, calling like a magpie. Eat it, and you are no longer sad. It may be the gentlest prescription in the book.

แม่น้ำเผิงที่เขาต้ายมีปลาซู ตัวเหมือนไก่ ขนแดง สามหาง หกขา สี่หัว เสียงเหมือนนกกางเขน "กินแล้วหายเศร้า" — ประโยคนี้ปรากฏครั้งเดียวในซานไห่จิง ยาอื่นรักษาร่างกาย ทั้งฝี โรคผิวหนัง หูหนวก มีเพียงตัวนี้ที่รักษาความรู้สึก

Sungai Peng di Gunung Dai banyak ikan Shu: macam ayam, bulu merah, tiga ekor, enam kaki, empat kepala, bunyinya macam murai. "Makan, hilang duka." Ayat ini muncul sekali sahaja dalam seluruh kitab. Ubat lain untuk badan — bisul, kudis, pekak. Hanya yang ini untuk perasaan.

Sông Bành dưới núi Đái nhiều cá Thúc: hình gà, lông đỏ, ba đuôi, sáu chân, bốn đầu, kêu như bồ câu ác. "Ăn vào hết buồn." Câu này chỉ xuất hiện một lần trong toàn bộ sách. Thuốc khác trị thân thể — mụn, ghẻ, điếc. Chỉ con này trị cảm xúc.

Sungai Peng di Gunung Dai banyak ikan Shu: mirip ayam, bulu merah, tiga ekor, enam kaki, empat kepala, suaranya seperti murai. "Dimakan menghilangkan duka." Kalimat ini muncul sekali saja di seluruh kitab. Obat lain untuk tubuh — bisul, kudis, tuli. Hanya ini untuk perasaan.