妴胡

The Classic of Eastern Mountains: the head of the third eastern section is Mount Shihu, looking north to Mount Yan. Gold and jade above; thorny scrub below. A beast lives there shaped like a milu deer with fish eyes. Its name is Yuanhu, and its call is its own name. Note something first: the third eastern section travels strangely. The first two sections go "three hundred li south," "four hundred li south," step by step overland. The third suddenly turns to "eight hundred li south by water," "seven hundred li south by water," "a thousand li east by water." By water. In boats. And the distances run to seven or eight hundred li at a stretch. This is not following a river. This is crossing seas. The route of the third eastern section starts at Mount Shihu, runs south, then bends east, passing Mount Qi, Mount Zhugou, Mount Zhongfu, Mount Hushe, Mount Mengzi, with "shifting sands" and a "deep marsh" in between, and ends at Mount Wugao, which "looks south to the Young Sea and east to the Fusang tree." The Young Sea points toward the Sea of Japan. Fusang is the mythic tree of the sunrise. So whoever recorded this section was describing a sea route: out from the Shandong peninsula, along the coast, across the Bohai or the Yellow Sea, with a sightline toward Japan. Mount Shihu is the start of that route. The character shi in classical usage means to preside, or to personate the dead in sacrifice. Shihu may be a tribal name; it may simply mean "the Hu people by the Shi waters." On this mountain is Yuanhu. Shaped like a milu, eyes like a fish. The milu is Pere David's deer, endemic to China: antlers of a deer, face of a horse, hooves of a cow, tail of a donkey — the "four不像," the four-unlike. It loves marsh, swims well, and once ranged across the Yangtze and Yellow River basins. What are fish eyes? A fish eye has three properties: no lids, no blinking; a large, protruding globe; a round lens. A milu's eyes are not large, but it has a striking feature: a well-developed preorbital gland, an opening in front of and below the eye, a dark slit. In rut it secretes a strongly scented fluid used to mark territory. In profile, the eye plus that dark slit reads as very long — as lidless and round-edged as a fish's. Or simpler: milu stand in water. Their eyes are wet, and they catch light. So do fishes'. Or: "fish eyes" means they do not close. Deer sleep with eyes half open, alert for predators. However it is read, the six characters — shaped like a milu, eyes like a fish — catch the two most conspicuous features of a marsh deer: the overall milu form, and eyes that are not a deer's. Then the name. Yuanhu. Yuan is written with the woman radical over yuan, "wronged," "bent." It may carry the sense of pliant, yielding. Hu in classical Chinese means a northern or western foreign people; it also means old, great; it also means the dewlap of a beast. Yuanhu could be "the pliant great beast," or "the beast like the Hu." Given that this route points east across water, I lean to the second: a strange-looking deer from the far side of the sea. And Mount Shihu is on the coast. So the record may run like this. A sailor, ashore in Liaodong or on the Korean coast, saw a kind of deer. Bigger than the deer at home. Eyes wrong. Call unintelligible. He asked the locals. A local said a word. He wrote down the sound: Yuanhu. Then he wrote: shaped like a milu with fish eyes, named Yuanhu, and its call is its own name. "Its call is its own name" in this book usually means: I could not understand it, so I recorded the sound. Yuanhu. It sounds like a deer calling.

ส่วนที่สามของ "ตงซานจิง" เดินทางแปลกมาก: จาก "ลงใต้สามร้อยลี้" เปลี่ยนเป็น "โดยน้ำ แปดร้อยลี้" "โดยน้ำ เจ็ดร้อยลี้" — นี่คือการเดินเรือข้ามทะเล เส้นทางเริ่มจากเขาซือหู ลงใต้แล้วเลี้ยวตะวันออก ผ่านเกาะ/เขา ต่าง ๆ จนถึงเขาอูเกา "มองใต้เห็นทะเลน้อย มองตะวันออกเห็นต้นฝูซัง" — ทิศญี่ปุ่น บนเขาซือหูมีหยวนหู: รูปร่างเหมือนกวางหมี่ (milu สี่ไม่เหมือน) ตาเป็นตาปลา กวางหมี่ชอบอยู่ในบึง ว่ายน้ำเก่ง ตาของมันมีต่อมน้ำมันใต้ตาเป็นร่องดำ ในภาพด้านข้างดูยาวเหมือนตาไม่มีเปลือกแบบปลา "ร้องเป็นชื่อตัวเอง" ในซานไห่จิงมักหมายถึง "ฟังไม่ออก ก็จดเสียงไว้" — หยวนหู อาจเป็นเสียงร้องของกวาง

Bahagian ketiga "Dong Shan Jing" bergerak pelik: daripada "tiga ratus li ke selatan" bertukar jadi "lapan ratus li melalui air", "tujuh ratus li melalui air" — ini pelayaran laut. Laluan bermula di Gunung Shihu, ke selatan lalu membelok timur, melalui beberapa gunung, berakhir di Gunung Wugao yang "melihat ke selatan Laut Muda, ke timur pokok Fusang" — arah Jepun. Di Gunung Shihu ada Yuanhu: bentuk seperti rusa milu, mata ikan. Rusa milu suka paya, pandai berenang. Matanya ada kelenjar pra-orbit berupa celah gelap; dari sisi nampak panjang seperti mata ikan tanpa kelopak. "Bunyinya namanya sendiri" dalam Shanhaijing selalunya bermaksud "aku tak faham, jadi aku catat bunyinya." Yuanhu mungkin bunyi rusa.

Phần thứ ba "Đông Sơn Kinh" di chuyển rất lạ: từ "ba trăm dặm về nam" đổi thành "tám trăm dặm đường thủy", "bảy trăm dặm đường thủy" — đây là hải trình. Lộ trình bắt đầu từ núi Thi Hồ, xuống nam rồi rẽ đông, qua nhiều núi, kết ở núi Vô Cao "nhìn nam thấy biển nhỏ, nhìn đông thấy cây Phù Tang" — hướng Nhật Bản. Trên núi Thi Hồ có Uyên Hồ: hình như hươu milu, mắt cá. Hươu milu ưa đầm lầy, bơi giỏi. Mắt nó có tuyến trước ổ mắt là một khe đen; nhìn nghiêng thấy dài như mắt cá không mí. "Kêu là tên mình" trong Sơn Hải Kinh thường nghĩa là "nghe không hiểu, ghi lại âm." Uyên Hồ có lẽ là tiếng hươu kêu.

Bagian ketiga "Dong Shan Jing" bergerak aneh: dari "tiga ratus li ke selatan" berubah jadi "delapan ratus li lewat air", "tujuh ratus li lewat air" — ini pelayaran laut. Rute dimulai di Gunung Shihu, ke selatan lalu membelok timur, melewati beberapa gunung, berakhir di Gunung Wugao yang "melihat ke selatan Laut Muda, ke timur pohon Fusang" — arah Jepang. Di Gunung Shihu ada Yuanhu: bentuk seperti rusa milu, mata ikan. Rusa milu suka rawa, pandai berenang. Matanya punya kelenjar pra-orbit berupa celah gelap; dari samping tampak panjang seperti mata ikan tanpa kelopak. "Bunyinya namanya sendiri" dalam Shanhaijing biasanya berarti "aku tidak paham, jadi kucatat bunyinya." Yuanhu mungkin bunyi rusa.