天愚

The Classic of Central Mountains: twenty-seven li east is Mount Du. The god Tianyu dwells there, and there are many strange winds and storms. On the mountain grows a tree called tianpian, square-stemmed, with mallow-like leaves. Eat it and you will not choke. Seventeen characters. One of the shortest entries in the book. Mount Du. The god is called Tianyu — Heaven's Fool. The mountain has much "strange wind and rain." Start with du. Du is a wall, a blockage. A mountain named "Block" is a mountain that stands in the way and stops something: water, wind, a road. Then the god's name: tian — heaven; yu — stupid, dull, unreasonable. Naming a god "Heaven's Fool" is a heavy thing to say. The ancients were not afraid to argue with heaven. Their attitude was always double: reverence, and grievance. The Book of Songs has lines like "Great Heaven is not fair, it sends down this extremity," and "Heaven sends down death and disorder, famine upon famine." Heaven is not always right. Heaven can be unjust, deaf, blind. Tianyu is the extreme of that line of thought: calling heaven a fool. But note that yu here is not the insult of an idiot. It is closer to "cannot be reasoned with." Heaven's behaviour has no pattern. You plant, and it withholds rain. You harvest, and it hails. You sacrifice correctly, and it turns on you anyway. This is not malice — malice has intent. This is folly: it has no reason at all. And "much strange wind and rain" fits the name exactly. Strange is the operative word. Ordinary wind and rain are seasonal, preceded by signs, predictable. Strange weather is local, sudden, senseless: a clear sky as you start up the mountain, a black cloud at mid-slope, two steps further and hail the size of eggs, ten steps more and the sun is out. In mountain country this has a name: convective weather. Terrain lifts the air; moisture condenses along the ridge; an isolated small cumulonimbus forms, lives forty minutes, dies, and drops its load over a few square kilometres. You cannot forecast it, and you cannot sacrifice against it, because you do not know which day, or which cloud, to address. So you give it a name: Heaven's Fool. Heaven, here, is not reasonable. The entry adds one more thing. On the mountain is a plant called tianpian, square-stemmed, mallow-leaved. Eat it and you will not choke — the character means to stick in the throat, to be unable to swallow. Tianpian also carries tian, heaven, in its name. Square stems are uncommon. Square stem plus mallow-like leaf points to the mint family, Lamiaceae, whose stems are square. Mints are rich in volatile oils that relax oesophageal spasm and aid swallowing. So the mountain is this: on the summit, a square-stemmed herb for choking; at mid-slope, a god named Heaven's Fool; and at any moment, hail out of a clear sky. A useful plant, an unreasonable god, a sudden disaster, all growing together. That is a complete account of a mountain: I know what it gives me, I know how it hurts me, and I do not know when. The last part, they named Tianyu.

เขาตู่ มีเทพชื่อ "เทียนอวี๋" = "ฟ้าผู้โง่" ภูเขานี้มี "ลมฝนประหลาด" การตั้งชื่อเทพว่าคนโง่ เป็นคำหนัก คนโบราณไม่ได้กลัวที่จะต่อว่าฟ้า ในซือจิงมีบทที่บ่นว่าฟ้าไม่ยุติธรรม "ประหลาด" คือคำสำคัญ ฝนปกติมีฤดู มีลางบอก แต่ฝนประหลาดมาแบบโลคอล ฉับพลัน — กลางแดดขึ้นเขา เจอลูกเห็บ แล้วก็แดดออก นี่คือ "พายุ convection" ตามสันเขา พยากรณ์ไม่ได้ ก็เลยตั้งชื่อว่า ฟ้าโง่

Gunung Du. Dewa bernama "Tianyu" = "Si Bodoh Langit". Gunung ini banyak "angin dan hujan aneh". Menamakan dewa "bodoh" itu berat. Orang dahulu tidak takut membantah langit; dalam Shijing ada yang merungut langit tidak adil. "Aneh" kata kuncinya. Hujan biasa ada musim dan tanda. Hujan aneh datang setempat dan tiba-tiba — naik gunung langit cerah, kena hujan batu, kemudian panas balik. Itu cuaca konvektif di rabung. Tidak boleh diramal, jadi diberi nama: Langit Bodoh.

Núi Đỗ. Thần tên "Thiên Ngu" = "Kẻ Ngốc Của Trời". Núi này nhiều "gió mưa quái dị". Đặt tên thần là "ngốc" là lời nặng. Người xưa không ngại trách trời; Kinh Thi có câu oán trời không công bằng. "Quái dị" là mấu chốt. Mưa thường có mùa, có điềm. Mưa quái dị đến cục bộ, đột ngột — đang nắng lên núi, gặp mưa đá, rồi lại nắng. Đó là thời tiết đối lưu theo sườn núi. Không dự báo được, nên đặt tên: Trời Ngốc.

Gunung Du. Dewa bernama "Tianyu" = "Si Bodoh Langit". Gunung ini banyak "angin dan hujan aneh". Menamai dewa "bodoh" itu berat. Orang dahulu tidak takut membantah langit; dalam Shijing ada yang mengeluh langit tidak adil. "Aneh" kata kuncinya. Hujan biasa punya musim dan tanda. Hujan aneh datang setempat dan mendadak — naik gunung langit cerah, kena hujan es, lalu panas lagi. Itu cuaca konvektif di punggung gunung. Tidak bisa diramal, jadi diberi nama: Langit Bodoh.