Wen Yiduo's Academic Writings. Commentaries on Chu Ci

Author: Wen Yiduo
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-11-01
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Nü Xi's Chanyuan, Chanyuan is also written as Shan Yuan. According to the Shuowen Jiezi (Dictionary of Chinese Characters), "" means "breathing," "" means "rapid breathing," and "" means "breath leading." "" and "" are the same character. "" can be described as "panting." The Fangyan (Regional Speech) says: "When people are frightened and choke, in the southern regions of Chu and the Yangtze River, it is called panting." The Guangya·Explanation of Words says: "Panting means fear." According to the Book of Songs·Shuli (The Leavened Millet), "" means "being unable to breathe due to sorrow." The Shuowen Jiezi says: "" means "suffocating after a full meal." Therefore, it is also called "panting." Shan Yuan is the same as "panting," as seen in the Lüshi Chunqiu·Chapter on Valuing пряность (Huang Yuan) and the Zhi Strategy (Qi Strategy). It is also the same as "breathing." Breathing means the frequency of air entering and leaving the body is rapid, as if being pulled up and down, so Wang's annotation interprets Shan Yuan as "pulling," and the Shuowen Jiezi also interprets "" as "breath leading." However, the Fangyan and Guangya consider "panting" to be fear, which seems insufficient to cover the meaning of "panting." Whenever emotions are tense and the pulse quickens, people pant, and fear is just one aspect of it. In this text, it says: "Nü Shan Yuan, and she scolds me with great anger," meaning she is angry and panting. In the Nine Songs·Xiang Jun, it says: "Nü Shan Yuan (the original text had all characters with a female radical, which has now been corrected. The same applies below) sighs for me," and in the Nine Declarations·Lamenting the Past, it says: "My heart Shan Yuan and I have no one to tell," (breathing is due to the heartbeat of the heart, so it is also called "heart Shan Yuan.") This means she is grieving and panting. In the Lamenting the Turning of the Wind, it says: "Suddenly, I wake up (meaning I am startled and wake up. In the Zuo Zhuan·Eighteenth Year of Wen, Jing Ying is called "Jing" in the Gongyang and Guli schools, and in the Zuo Zhuan·Seventh Year of Zhao, Nan Gong Jing Shu is called "Jing Shu" in the Shu Yuan·Miscellaneous Speeches, both of which can be understood as "waking up from fright.") and Shan Yuan," meaning she is startled and panting. However, since panting is called Shan Yuan, its meaning arises from being pulled, then the character should naturally have a hand radical. Scholars, merely because the people in the Lament of the Departed and the Nine Songs who are Shan Yuan are all female, changed the character to have a female radical, and thus in other texts where Shan Yuan does not refer to women, the character is also changed to have a female radical, which is extremely illogical. If in the Bai Shi Liu Tie (later referred to as the Bai Tie), Volume 19, and in the Chao Shu Wen Jian Hou Lu (Record of Later Observations), Volume 26, the text is quoted as "Chanyuan," it is directly understood as a woman's beauty. How true it is that the great way is full of divergences and the sheep is lost.
"Shan Yu is stubborn and direct, and he loses his life." In ancient times, "" and "" were often used interchangeably. "" means "forgetting oneself," meaning Shan Yu, being stubborn and direct, does not care about his own safety or danger. Wang's annotation reads it as "" in the original text, which is incorrect. The annotation of the "Five Hundred Families" in the Han Changli Collection in the Yongzhen Hua by Zhu notes this as "," correcting Wang's annotation.
"Finally, he perishes in the wilds of Yu." "" is also written as "." Shan Yu is not a premature death, so how can he be called ""? "" should follow the original character as "," meaning "" is the same as "yao," meaning "to be obstructed." In the Huainanzi·Chapter on Simulating the True (Chuzhen), it says: "In the universe between heaven and earth, no one can obstruct," and also says: "All directions are without boundaries, connected to the boundless, and no one can obstruct." "" is a compound word with the same meaning, and this is like the Heavenly Questions saying: "Forever obstructed in the wilds of Yu." In the Rites of Zhou·Explanation of Sacrifices, the annotation on Zheng's will answering Zhao Shang says: "Shan Yu was not executed to death; he was exiled to the eastern frontier, and he could not return to the court even until his death." According to the annotation, exiling him so that he could not return to the court is the same as obstructing and stopping him from returning to the court. This was originally written as "," but Wang's annotation mistakenly interpreted it as "early death," and later people began to correct the text to conform to it. The Tang manuscript and the current edition of the Selected Works of Wen both write "," and Wang Shi Peng's annotation in the Commentary on Su Dongpo's Poems in the Twelfth Volume also quotes the same.
"Day is about to set, and I am lost in longing for return." Liu Yongji suspected that "" should be "." In fact, Liu is correct. This was a mistake involving the Shan Gui saying: "I resent the prince, and I am lost in longing for return." To understand this, Wang's annotation says: "He says his heart is joyful and his will is pleased, and suddenly forgets to return." "Joyful and pleased" does not match the meaning of "." (Chang should be interpreted as "lost in longing," so the annotation on the Shan Gui says: "Therefore, I am lost in longing and forget to return.") In the Dong Jun, "The onlookers are tranquil and forget to return," the annotation says: "Tranquil in meaning and forget to return," and in the Shan Gui, "I linger for Ling Xiu and forget to return," the annotation says: "Tranquil in my heart and forget to return." "Joyful and pleased" is close in meaning to "tranquil." This annotation interprets "" as "," just like the annotation on the Dong Jun interpreting "" as "." Moreover, the Dong Jun says: "My heart is hesitant and I look back, the onlookers are tranquil and forget to return," and this text says: "Day is about to set and I forget to return, only looking back at the far shore (now mistakenly written as , see below)," both say " and forget to return," and also say "look back and long," meaning their wording and sentences are largely similar and can be mutually verified.
"Only at the far shore, I awaken and long." "Awaken and long" has no meaning. "Awaken" should be "look back," a mistake in pronunciation. In the Dong Jun, it says: "My heart is hesitant and I look back," Yang Xiong's Fǎn Sao says: "Looking at the four borders and looking back," and Cao Pi's Yan Ge Xing says: "I linger in looking back and cannot stay," so "look back and long" was a common phrase in ancient times. "Look back" means "to think," and "long" also means "to think." "Only at the far shore, I look back and long" means "only the people at the far shore are the ones I think of." Wang's annotation interprets "awaken" as "to be awake," which means the original text was already incorrect.
"By the purple pearl gate, by the red palace," the Wenyuan writes it as "zhu palace." According to the Wenyuan, it should be "zhu palace." This uses the purple pearl gate and the red palace in parallel, just like the Nine Declarations·Encountering Chaos using the purple pearl gate and jade hall in parallel. The Yulian (Volume 173), Yulian (Volume 807), Shi Lei Fu Zhu (Volume 6), Xie Weixin's Hebi Shi Lei Qianji (Volume 7), Ren Yuan's Shan Yu Nei Ji (Volume 3) in the Quanyun (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (Volume 6) in the Wenqian (