Hallucinations and Epiphanies in T'ang Poetry

Author(s): Edward H. Schafer

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 104, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1984), pp. 757760
Published by: American Oriental Society
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Hallucinations and Epiphanies in T'ang Poetry

"For Auden as for Nabokov, 'art is a game of intricate
enchantment and deception."' (John Bayley, review of Edward
Mendelson, Early Auden, in TLS, I I December 1981)

Literary transformations are like perceptual transformations.

A large number of T'ang poems have the quality of illuminating hallucinations. In them concrete objects or whole
scenes are transformed into visions of their astral or celestial

its exact nuances must be understood perfectly in order to

decipher the whole message. This admonition must be kept
in mind when reading any poem. It is all the more necessary
to do so when the artful illusionist is contriving an illusion
within an illusion-that is, a phantom within a poem.
Often these hallucinatory images are identified as such by
the writer. They are defined by similes, explicit comparisons,
or even proclaimed identities. A flight of cranes becomes a
bevy of moon-maids; a lamp-lit geisha street becomes a
sylphine paradise; a patterning of frost is an array of sword
blades; drifting snow is jade sand washed from the Sky River,
or it is a show of white flowers, then ashes of jade from a
sacred mountain, and finally a procession of moon fairies;
pine trees become magic sky-rafts; a misted pine-clad mountain is Nu Kua's skirt; rain is water dripping from the Sky
River.2 "Evening on the Kiang," the second of the poems
translated below, belongs in this group.
In more challenging poems, the writer does not give the
whole show away: he requires that the reader detect a veiled
transformation, guided by a subtle sequence of clues. For
instance, an apparent priestess is in fact a goddess; a house
can be seen as a mansion on the Sky River; a window becomes a constellation; a mist becomes a rain spirit; a round
mirror becomes the full moon, and a curtain hook its crescent
phase; the Lo River is transmuted into the Sky River; Mount
Sung becomes a celestial palace of white jade; frost becomes
apricot flowers; a geisha house becomes Ch'ango-o's glittering

"counterparts."l

For instance, a lunar halo may assume the aspect of a

crystal palace in the sky, or of a radiant mist-swathed goddess. Such an epiphany is analogous to the vision of a Taoist
adept who experiences a mystical transformation of the world
his senses reveal to him into a higher or eternal semblance of
itself. The poet's skill in verbal magic is best displayed when
he contrives this transformation between the first and last
couplet of his artifact, the poem-especially when this is a
simple quatrain. Then a close succession of interlocking
images leads the reader, in a short verbal space, to an inevitable perception of the unity and coherence of the vision
embodied in the poem. At its best, the transformation is
effected continuously, like the gradual illumination of a stage.
Every word, every interrelation between words, every highlighting of one word by contiguity or interaction with another, must be consistent with the texture and design of this
carefully designed gestalt. No single word is chosen idly or
fortuitously: in a good poem each word has a vital part and
' For the pervasiveness of the doctrine of correspondences,
the basis of Chinese astrology, but also very significant in
religion, magic, medicine and other aspects of medieval culture, see E. H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches
to the Stars (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977),
pp. 55-56, where a simplified version of the concept is outlined: "Celestial events are the 'counterparts' or 'simulacra' of
terrestrial events, sky things have doppelgtingers below, with
which they are closely attuned. 'In the sky are formed counterparts (hsiang); on the earth are formed contours (hsing)."'
Hence asterisms are "mystic simulacra" (hsaan hsiang) and
have macrocosmic roles analogous or identical with those of
things and events which, in the microcosm of the physical
world or human body, are in sympathetic harmony with
them. See Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations of
Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence (Cambridge,
Mass.: M. I.T. Press, 1974), for an elaborate statement of this
theory.

2 All of the examples are from my own publications, in the

following order: E. H. Schafer, "The Cranes of Mao Shan,"
in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein,
Vol. 2, ed. M. Strickmann (Melanges chinois et bouddhiques;
Brussels, 1983), p. 392; "Notes on T'ang Geisha, 3. Yangchou in T'ang Times," Schafer Sinological Papers, 6 (19
March 1984), 11; Pacing the Void, p. 153; "The Snow of
Mao Shan: A Cluster of Taoist Images," in Myth and Symbol in Chinese Literature, ed. N. J. Girardot (forthcoming);
Pacing the Void, p. 266; The Divine Woman: Dragon Ladies
and Rain Maidens in TFangLiterature (San Francisco: North
Point Press, 1980), p. 92; "The Sky River," Journal of the
American Oriental Society 94 (1974), 406.

757

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758

Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.4 (1984)

pavilion in the moon.3 The third of the poems translated

below falls in this category.
The position of my first specimen is harder to define,
probably because of its somewhat whimsical tone.
SPECIMENS
"I strive for the transcendental
mountain"
(Mei Niang)4

The Gallery at Scorched Cliff

Wei Chuang5
1. Li Po once sang "The Shu Road is hard."6
2. [I have] heard: "In white sun[light one may] ascend to the
blue sky."
3. Now at sunrise, having passed to the Gallery at Scorched
Cliff by night,
4. I begin to believe that the Starry Ho lay in front of my
horse.
Comments
1. In the course of his poem, Li Po uses the words "the
hardship of the Shu Road-harder than the ascent of the
blue sky!" three times, putting much emphasis on the comparison between the ascent of the pass and the ascent to
heaven. Wei Chuang echoes this motif in his first couplet.
2. But there is this difference: the interposition of "in white
sunlight" adds a specifically Taoist element. It was well

3 E. H. Schafer, "The Capeline Cantos: Verses on the Divine

Loves of Taoist Priestesses," Asiatisehe Studien 32 (1978),
passim; "Two Late T'ang Poems on Music," Literature East
and West 16 (1972), 993; "Supposed 'Inversions' in T'ang
Poetry," Journal of the American Oriental Society 96 (1976),
121; "Cantos on 'One Bit of Cloud at Shamanka Mountain',"
Asiatische Studien 36 (1982), 111-112; "A Trip to the
Moon," Parabola 8/4 (Fall 1983), 79-80; Pacing the Void,
p. 259; "Notes on T'ang Geisha, 3. Yang-chou in T'ang
Times," Schafer Sinological Papers, 6 (19 March 1984), 12.
4 Mei Niang, "Ho Cho Ying-ying Chin-ch'eng ch'un wang,"
Ch 'uan Tang shih (Taipei: Fu-hsing shu-chu, 1967), han 12,
ts'e 6, p. 3b (hereafter CTS); translated in E. H. Schafer,
"Three Divine Women of South China," Chinese Literature:
EssaYs,Articles, Reviews 1 (1979), 37.
5 Wei Chuang (fl. 900), "Chiao yai ko," CTS, han 10, ts'e 9,
ch. 5, pp. 3a-3b.
6 Li Po, "Shu tao nan," CTS, han 3, ts'e 4, ch. 2, pp. Ib-2a.
See the translation in Arthur Waley, The PoetrY and Career
of Li Po, 701-762 A.D. (3rd impression, London: Allen &
Unwin, 1969), pp. 38-40.

known that Li Po aspired to transcendence, and had even

been initiated into the lower arcana. In one of his own poems
he expresses his delight at receiving a sacred register.7Adepts
of the highest level could expect to ascend into the sky "in
white sunlight"-a simultaneous transfiguration and assumption-a feat here attributed to Li Po, either in Wei Chuang's
belief or in his fancy. Indeed, it was believed that Li Po had
been appropriately stellated in the asterism "Wine Star" (Chiu
Hsing) in our constellation Leo (k, j, X Leonis), as was recognized by the late T'ang poets Li Ho, P'i Jih-hsiu, Cheng
Ku, and P'ei Yueh.8
3. After a harrowing climb by night, Wei Chuang's persona
finds himself at the summit just at sunrise, where he can
inspect the path below, with its narrow ledges and hanging
trellises. (I cannot identify either "Scorched Cliff" or its gallery. The latter may have been an actual rest-house, or a
natural rock formation.)
4. There are stars in Li Po's "Shu Road is Hard" as well: "I
feel my way past Triaster, and I traverse Well" (men shen li
ching). Both asterisms are lunar lodgings, the significant elements of Chinese astrology. "Triaster"contains the brightest
stars of Orion, notably 6, c, and 4, which stud the swordbelt, plus a (Betelgeuse) and ,B (Rigel). "Well" consists of
stars in Hydra. Both constellations hang over the southeast
in January, that is, back towards the lowlands and the
Yangtze watershed. In "disastrous geography" (fen j'eh),
Triaster governs Shansi, while Well controls the destiny of
the west country, including the passes into Szechwan. Li Po
has given an astrological version of a journey into the west.
Now Wei Chuang pronounces, in a rather jocular tone, that
he has equalled Li Po's feat of rising to heaven by a steep
and mysterious passage and hobnobbing with the stars. He
himself has, undoubtedly, watered his horse in the glittering
water of the great sky river (Hsing Ho). Ad astra per ardua.

1.
2.
3.
4.

11
Evening on the Kiang
Ts'ui Tao-yung9
In the Kiang's heart the autumn moon is white.
I take up the rudder and move on, confident in the tide.
Kraken-dragons'l mutate-become human:
At midnight-the sound of [someone] blowing a flute.

E. H. Schafer, "Li Po's Star Power," Bulletin of the

Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 6 (Fall 1978),
5-15.
8 Pacing the Void, pp. 124-125.
9 Ts'ui Tao-yung (fl. 879), "Chiang hsi," CTS, han 11, ts'e
1, p. 2a.
'0 Chiao lung. The chiao "kraken" is generally regarded as
a terrifying subspecies of lung "dragon."

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SCHAFER:

759

Hallucinations and Epiphanies in T'ang Poetry

Comments
1. The full moon of mid-autumn is mirrored in the water of
the broad Yangtze. (White is the color of the supernatural
world.)
2. The traveler takes in his rudder and allows natural forces
to direct his movements. (He must be in the estuary, probably near Yang-chou, where the tidal waters make themselves
felt.)
3. Krakens are malignant, demoniac beings which sometimes
turn into lovely girls-bloodthirsty witch-wives who lure
young men to their deaths in their subaqueous lairs. Their
bait is usually the false shape of an elegant mansion, seen by
moonlight, where the sounds of revelry may be heard."
4. It is the very witching hour-we should expect werewolves
and vampires. It seems to be a peaceful autumn night-but
is it a night of horror? Now the siren's song. Is it a dream, or
is this really happening to me?:
Evening in Transylvania
Some unseen power carries me away:
It is the night of the full moon
When satanic creatures take on human formAnd somewhere I hear the notes of a zither.
(Ah there, Dracula!)

3. Bit by bit, a pale light opens.

4. A slip of sail stands in the indigo of space.
Comments
1. The dawn breeze rises, sufficient to register on the masthead weathervane of a river-boat.
2. The light of a quarter moon, waning, riding high at dawn
(a full moon would be setting at this time) is barely perceptible on the white surface of a wall-apparently a seawall where the boat is moored. It is about to set sail.
3. The morning light spreads slowly through the sky.
4. The moon fades to become a pale ghostly sail, blown by
the dawn breeze across the black void, which is now turning
dark blue. It is the wayfarer's boat, wafted up to merge with
its celestial counterpart, to sail eastward and ultimately to
vanish in the full light of day. The theme of the magic boat
which sails up the Yellow River, or out to sea, ultimately to
find itself on the Sky River, high above the world, is a commonplace of T'ang literature.'4 Here are K'o-p'in Yi's verses
about a sky raft:
Vehicle fading afar, ah! none knows its movements;
Route through a watery waste, ah! leaving no trace
behind.

III
Daybreak
Ch'uan Te-yu 12
1. Daybreak wind shakes the "five-ounce.'
2. Fading moon glints on stone wall.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

" For tales of their nocturnal atrocities, see The Divine

Woman, pp. 158-160.
12 Ch'uan Te-yu (759-818), "Hsiao," CTS, han 5, ts'e 8,
ch. 6, p. 8a.

'3 Shu kuang. Shu is a faint, diffuse light in the sky, especially dawn light.
14
See "Sky Rafts" in Pacing the Void, pp. 262-269.
15 Pacing the Void, pp. 266-267.

Nor can one know whither it goes.'5

EDWARD

GLOSSARY

Cheng Ku V
Chiang Hsi

&

Ho Cho Ying-ying Chin =

ch'eng ch'un wang

A:y

Chiao lung O'kW

Chiao yai ko 4,A V
Chiu Hsing

,K

Hsiang K&

Ch'uan T'ang shih

Ch'uan Te-yu )V
Fen yeh ,e

*
OV

Hsiao f%
Hsing l
Hsing Ho ,;w

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H.

SCHAFER

Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.4 (1984)

760
Hsuan hsiang
K'o-p'ing Yu
Li Ho

P'i Jih-hsiu I By*

i~t
4

il

Shu a
Shu kuang

At

Mei Niang NA4

Men shen Ii ching MPt
P'ei Yueh t-k

dr

Shutaonan

FAX
Ts'ui Tao-yung t&@,
Wei Chuang
*t

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