Preface

Thousands of years ago, there lived in the vast areas south to the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River a multitude of tribes, who were termed the “Yues” in the Xia Dynasty (appr. 2100—1600 BC), the “Uncivilized Yues” or “Southern Yues” in the Shang Dynasty (1600—1046 BC), the “Jin Yues” or the “Yang Yues” in the Zhou Dynasty (1046—256 BC), and the “Multitude of Yues” during the Warring States Period (475—221 BC). The expression “The Multitude of Yues”, which is still in use today, may refer to those ancient tribesmen, or to the areas they lived in, which should have included the present-day Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, a coverage running from Kuaiji of today’s Zhejiang to the north of the present Vietnam.” (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 63) Just as Chenzan (of the Jin Dynasty) says, “In the areas totaling around seven to eight thousand square li, running from Jiaozhi to Kuaiji, there lived a multitude of races called the Yues,” which is quoted by Yan Shigu (581—645) in a note to The Geographical Sketches of The Book of the Han Dynasty. The races were known as the Eastern Yue, the Ouren, the Yuyue, the Yangyue, the Gumei, the Haiyang, the Sunzi, the Jiujun, the Yuechang, the Luoyue, the Ouyue, the Ou’ai, the Qie’ou, the Weastern Ou, the Gongren, the Mushen, the Cuifu, the Qinren, the Cangwu, the Yue’ou, the Guiguo, the Chanli, the Haigui, the Jiyu, the Beidai, the Puju, the Ouwu, etc. in accordance with historical records.

The Yues, “sharing the physical distinctions of the Southern Mongolian Race, had the same cultural features.” (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 64) They tended to be tattooed and have their hair cut; they mostly dwelled in rugged mountainous regions, moved about by boats, loved sea food, and were swift in action and adept in warfares on water; and they were good at manufacturing bronze ware, such as bronze swords and bronze bells. Facts and archaeological findings show that the regions of Wu and Yue had been the home of bronze swords during the Spring and Autumn Period (770—476 BC), which speaks for the fact that Mount Mogan has derived its name from the famous swords Ganjiang and Moye; when it annexed the Yangyue, the State of Chu employed the Yues in bronze sword manufacturing; and unearthed respectively in 1965 and 1973 were Goujian’s Zhouju’s sabers. Ou Yezi, a renowned expert of Chu in sword manufacturing, had his sword manufacturing centers in Longquan of Zhejiang and Fuzhou of Fujian.

The adhesive-type language of the ancient Yues is quite different from the ancient Chinese spoken by the northerners. The researches of linguists have verified that today’s dialects of Wu (吴, approximately the present Jiangsu), Min (闽, i.e. the present Fujian) and Yue (粤, i.e. the present Guangdong) have a close relation with the language of the ancient Yues.

There is a joke in Zhuangzi telling that a northerner transported some hats to the region of Yue for sale, and that consequently his goods didn’t sell, for the Yues never wore hats. From that we can see the Yues had had cultural ties with the north long long before. Trade contacts and cultural intercourses began “as early as the Shang Dynasty”. (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 89) The Yues had come under the jurisdiction of Chu, and the administration center the Court of Chu (built approximately in the fourth century BC by Chu’s prime minister Gao Gu), situated in what is today’s Guangzhou, may serve as a piece of evidence.

The Multitude of Yues boasts of a long history. Around fifty thousand years before, the primitive “Jiande Men” had lived in the present Zhejiang. The neolithic relics unearthed at Hemudu, such as unhusked rice, bone spades and bone flutes, have manifested that the Multitude of Yues is one of the first races in raising pigs, and the areas they lived in is one of the sources of rice culture. In 2000, an American scholar found out through testing that such relics as hand axes discovered in Bose of Guangxi are at least of 803,000 years old in geological time, which, just as an American paleoanthropologist points out, has prompted the archaeological circle to re-assess the beginning of Asian civilization. In 1958, the fossil of a skull of the Maba Hominid, a protolithic human race living 129,000 years ago, was excavated in Shaoguan of Guangdong. In 1972, some 5000-year-old neolithic relics were unearthed. Such archaeological findings as shell mounds, at Puning and Chao’an of Guangdong, as well as those at Pingtan of Fujian, have pointed to the fact that “a belt of cultural flow, extending from the present-day Southern Fujian (including Zhangzhou, Zhangpu and Dongshan) to Nan’ao of Guangdong, had existed 9,000 to 13,000 years before.” (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 196) Pre-historical shell mounds and other relics, such as the one excavated in Chenxi, Hunan, have been unearthed in the other southern provinces.

Stars are revolving, and constellations are in constant changes. In the course of cultural exchanges and historical developments, the Yue culture has converged with the Central Plain culture (中原文化), the Jing-Chu culture (荆楚文化), the　Dongyi culture (东夷文化) and the Northern culture (北方文化),and thus become a component part of the profound and magnificent Chinese culture.

The heroic people of the south, from the great sages and philosophers to the rank and file, have lent incomparable charm and glory to their homeland. Notwithstanding that, the evaluation of the south has more or less been affected by the orthodox ideas, which bear the gene of affiliation, as well as by the pride and prejudice of the northern dynasties. A simple archaeological survey through language and literature would shed light on the point. Such expressions as “the savage south” and “the savage Chu” evidently had a connotation of discrimination when they were first put to use; The Verse of Chu, an immortal classic, was rebuked for its “transgression of the Principle of the Mean” and “failure in abiding by the doctrines advocated by the Duke of Zhou and Confucius.” The history of Chu may also verify the case. As regards that point, to catch a glimpse of Chu’s growth is not bringing owls to Athens.

Driven by the Shang Dynasty, the tribesmen with the family name of Mi, as descendants of Emperor Gaoyang (高阳) and one of the eight branches of Zhurong’s offspring (祝融氏后裔八姓之一), moved southward from one place to another and finally settled down in Jingshan (荆山) of the present Hubei. As they had supported the State of Zhou in overthrowing the Shang rulers and in founding the Zhou Dynasty, their chieftain Yuxiong (鬻熊) became the Minister of Fire. Owing to the fact that affiliation played a part much more important than that of contributions in the enfeoffment, Yuxiong’s great grandson Xiong Yi (熊绎) was only endowed the title of viscount and the scant fief of fifty li (about 20 square kilometers). He went in the capacity of head of the state to join in the Alliance Meeting of Qiyang (岐阳之搜) in high spirits, only to be snubbed by the royalty and the other noblemen because of his low rank, about which not a few of his successors could not help feeling indignant. King Wu (?-690BC), seeing that there was no hope of recognition and accept-ance by the Zhou Dynasty, overstepped the confinement of his authority to confer the titles of prince on his sons.

In some sense Chu was the font of Daoism. Yuxiong’s Daoist philosophy sets store by humanity and underlines the dialectics of change which, consummated by such sages as Laozi (李聃, from the State of Chu), Confucius (孔丘, 551—479 BC), Zhuangzi (庄周, descendant of the royal clan of Chu, 369—286 BC) and Qu Yuan (屈原, descendant of the royal clan of Chu, appr. 340—278 BC), have evolved into Daoism and become the core of Confucianism.

What with the influence of the philosophy and what with the spur out of the discrimination on the part of the Zhou monarchs, in the early stages of the state the Chu people had constantly striven to survive and to become stronger. When describing their arduous pioneering efforts, the great historian Zuo Qiuming (左丘明) says, in his The Spring and Autumn Annals (《左传》), that “dressed in miserable rags and tatters they opened up wasteland with simple wooden handcarts”, that King Wu of Chu “launched a great campaign to enlighten the uncivilized.” The successors carried forward the strategy for development. King Zhao of Zhou (?—1002 BC) had twice led an expedition to punish Chu, and Duke Huan of the State of Qi had made war against Chu on the pretext that Chu hadn’t paid due respect for the Zhou Dynasty, but they had not held back Chu’s rise. In the reign of King Zhuang (?—591), Chu stunned the other states with the single feat of reforms and secured a dominant position over them. In its prime the state claimed a domain that would cover today’s eleven provinces. Without a wise strategy, what’s obtained today would be lost tomorrow. On the one hand, the Chu people had adapted the Central Plain culture, which they had brought along, to the situation through renovation and reformation; on the other they had taken a magnanimous attitude towards the tribes and minor nationalities that had different values, beliefs, mores and traditions, and had absorbed whatever cultural genes they deemed suitable for the circumstances. For example, their worship of fire and red had stemmed from their innate beliefs related to their ancestor Zhurong, whereas their belief in the Art of Wu (a combination of medicine, folklore, astrology and necromantic art, etc.), which was advantageous for the survival of men in perilous environments, had resulted from the integrity of the notion “unity oneness of nature and man” and the necromantic art of the Multitude of Yues (including the Jing people); and the perfect image of the Phoenix, which tallied with the tradition of most racial groups in the south and thus might favor the cultivation of cultural awareness, had been the creation in light of the idea “benevolence” and the nature of local culture. Researchers have pointed out that Chu had taken a lenient policy towards the submitted. Unlike the State of Qin, which used to have large numbers of war prisoners slaughtered, it chose to placate the subjects and preserve the ancestral temples of the defeated royalties. The following anecdotes may also shed light on the point. There’s a story in Garden of Doctrines and Theories (《说苑》), a book written by Liu Xiang (刘向, appr. 77-6 BC), telling that when the boat-woman’s song was translated into the language of Chu, the Prince of E (named Zixi), overjoyed, went over to embrace the boat-woman and put his embroidered cloak on her. The great poet Qu Yuan (a member of the royal family), who loved the culture of the Yue’s, had absorbed the artistry in the Yue’s folk songs for his creation. As a result of the appropriate policies, which had created a harmony favorable to social, cultural and economic developments, Chu began to thrive. For instance, when the Yangyues brought their bronze melting and manufacturing techniques to Chu, Chu’s bronze industry was greatly boosted. In human history Chu was the first producer of the writing brush, the first establisher of the county as an administrative setup, and the first builder of the Great Wall. As a big state of the time, Chu boasted of its excellent literature, music and art. It’s no wonder that its philosophy was comparable to that of Ancient Greece (800—146 BC) both in profundity and in speculativeness. Mr. Huang Duanyun, in his paper On the State of Chu, and Mr. Zhang Zhengming, in his book History of the Culture of Chu, both attribute the growth of Chu to Chu’s policies of open-mindedness, leniency and magnanimity.

From what is reviewed above, we can see that the Zhou royalty’s arrogance and prejudice was self-evident, and that such factors as culture, philosophy, politics and economy had brought the prosperity and growth of Chu, which in turn enabled Chu to accomplish its historical mission of cultural convergence and to play an important role in the formation of a great nation, which was to become a blessing to world peace and human civilization. Just as the divine Dragon born in the north is full of vigor and righteousness, the holy Phoenix created by the people of Chu is radiating with beauty and warmth. The happy integrity of the Phoenix and the Dragon yet to come would mark the maturity of the resplendent Chinese culture, which is characteristic of profundity, practicality, inclusiveness, unity of man and nature and dialectical change. Notwithstanding, the Chinese people must not loose sight of their cultural defects (such as the lack of masculinity), especially in the era when Neo-fascism and Hegemonism are looming large over the Pacific.

There had been friendly ties between the States of Yue and Chu. As early as in the reign of King Kang of Chu, singers and songstresses of Yue songs had been sent to Chu for performances. The political alliance between the two states, reinforced through marriages of the royalties, had lasted long. Furthermore, exchanges in human resources had been frequent. The facts that the Chu talent, such as Ji Ni (计倪), Wen Zhong (文种), Fan Li (范蠡) and Chen Yin (陈音), had held important positions in Yue, and that the Yue talent, such as Zhuang Xi (庄舃), had rendered excellent service in Chu, may illustrate the case. All these had paved the way for the cultural convergence yet to come.

The year 306 BC witnessed the annexation of the State of Yue by the State of Chu. The convergence of the Chu and the Yue cultures had not only promoted the social, economic and cultural development of the south and ensured the inheritance and development of the Chu and the Yue cultures, but it had also proved to be of great significance to the formation and growth of a multinational country.

The Yue ancients are gone with the wind, but the culture they created have survived wars, famines and calamities. Researchers have found connections between ancient and contemporary mores. According to Zhou Chu’s Records of Mores, the ancient Yues used to strike round plates while dancing, and offered deities or ancestors beef and pork at sacrificial ceremonies. Today the Yao and the She nationalities, regarded as Yues by the author of the book, dance and observe the rituals in the same way. (Zhu Qiufeng, 2004: 50) Identity in the music also exists among the folk songs of the regions in question. Feng Mingyang (冯明洋) points out that the mid-level tone of the folk songs of the Zhuang Nationality in Xiangzhou and Zhejiang’s folk song “The Hospitable Girl” not only bear similarity in curvilinear regulation, but they are also almost identical in rhythm and pitch patterns; that similarities are also found between the songs in the Tuguai dialect, i.e. the Mulao folk songs in Luocheng of Guangxi, and the folk songs in Dinghai and Xianju of Zhejiang, and that Guangxi’s songs of the Yulin Mountains and Jiangsu’s Wuxian Melody are almost of the same kind in stains. (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 26) Besides, highly identical are the two versions of Song to Gaohuang, respectively belonging in the Volumn of Guangdong and the Volumn of Zhejiang in Anthology of Chinese Folk Songs, only that Guangdong’s Chaozhou Strain is closer to the primitive style of the song in question. (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 332—333) When dwelling on the local coloring of the ancient songs of Ou (a branch of Yue) and of the ballads circulated at the juncture of Zhejiang and Fujian, Zhu Qiufeng (朱秋枫) summarizes their similarities as follows: the employment of supplementary words and clauses; freedom in form and sentence patterns in spite of certain metrical regulations; colorfulness in form; and natural ease and primitive simplicity in style. (Zhu Qiufeng, 2004: 242—344) As a matter of fact, those features are applicable to nearly all the folksongs of Southern China.

The Yue songs have a close relation with the folk songs of Chu. “It is the Chu culture that has exerted the most far-reaching influence on the ancient songs of Yue,” Zhu Qiufeng points out, and “The ancient songs of Yue are the outcome of the long-standing convergence of the Yue and the Chu cultures.” (Zhu Qiufeng, 2004: 12—13) To lay bare the interrelation, Zhu makes a comparison between the sampled lines:

The answer the autumn orchids now tells:

Green leaves match the stems of a purple hue.

No wonder that among a hall of belles

I alone come into Your Grace’s view!

(Song to Fate the Minor)

Oh, what a special night tonight,

Which witnesses this midstream float!

Oh, what a special date today,

When I’m grac’d to share with th’ prince th’ same boat!

(The Yue’s Song)

Th’ Yuan River boasts of angelicas and th’ Li of

Orchids; but alas, no word of love dare I say!

(Song to the Ladies of the Xiang River)

Oh, Trees cling to th’ mount, and branches embrace the tree;

I love Your Highness, but Your Highness o’erlook me!

(The Yue’s Song)

He concludes that the songs of Yue and the songs of Chu “have in common not only the syntactical structures, but also the techniques for depicting scenes and expressing feelings.” He furthers, by giving the case of the Soldiers’ Song of Departure and Eulogy of the Martyrs of the State, that the two types in question “are even similar in style.” (Zhu Qiufeng, 2004: 13)

Let’s examine the following two Yue songs, which respect-ively circulate in Zhejiang and Guangxi:

I, marri’d-off, regards a rainy day as clear

Whenever for my parents’ I’m happily bound.

E’en the remotest place may appear to be near,

And rugged trails in my eyes are but level ground!

(Visiting with My Parents)

For Mom my yearning’s deep,

No matter I’m walking or asleep.

On th’ road I fancy she stays the pace,

While in bed I keep for her due place.

(For Mom My Yearning’s Deep)

Obviously they share not only thematic but also stylistic distinctions with each other, which may speak for the inherence of ancient and modern Yue songs and the interrelationship of those songs circulating in different regions.

As part of the cultural heritage of the mankind, the vivacious songs of Yue, passed on from one generation to another, reflect the customs, beliefs, philosophy, literature, social reality and cultural drifts of the south, thus they have been honored as “the archives of national mentality” and “an encyclopedia of social life.” The songs of Yue, still circulating today in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan, share the same source but boast of their own glamour and characteristics.

Extant records of the songs of Yue can be found fragmentarily in various kinds of books, e.g. Garden of Doctrines and Theories (《说苑》) by Liu Xiang, Annals of the States of Wu and Yue (《吴越春秋》) by Zhao Ye (赵晔), Records of Mores (《风土记》) by Zhou Chu (周处, 236-297), The Miraculous and the Grotesque (《搜神记》) by Gan Bao (干宝, ?-336), The Chorography of Lin’an (《临安地志》) by Guo Pu (郭璞, 276—324), The Illustrious of Kuaiji (《会稽典录》) by Yu Yu (虞预, appr. 285-340), History of the Song in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (《宋书》) by Shen Yue (沈约, 441-513), History of the Qi in the Northern and Southern Dynasties （《南齐书》) by Xiao Zixian (萧子显, 487—537), History of the Jin Dynasty (《晋书》) by Fang Xuanling (房玄龄, 579-648), A Sequel to Bibliographies of Eminent Monks (《续高僧传》) by the Buddhist Daoxuan (道宣, 593—667), etc. Some scholars of exceptional vision in the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) began to pay attention to the collection, classification and research of the songs of Yue, and in this regard The Folk Songs of Yue: In the Wake of the Nine Hymns (《粤风续九》) by Wu Qi (吴淇, 1615-1675) et al. and A Collection of Folk Songs of Yue （《粤风》） by Li Tiaoyuan (李调元, 1734-1803) are probably pioneering works. From the twenties to the eighties of the 20th century, folklorists, musicologists and scholars in ballad studies had achieved a great deal in grassroots investigations and studies of the Yue songs. Two of the most influential works are perhaps Zhu Qiufeng’s History of Zhejiang Songs and Ballads (《浙江歌谣源流史》) and Feng Mingyang’s The Yue Songs: A Theoretical Survey of the Local Culture of the South in Songs and Music （《越歌——岭南本土歌乐文化论》), both of which include adequate data and insightful viewpoints.

It is a pity that even the fragmentary English versions of the Yue songs are few, let along bilingual collections of those songs.

Culture is the soul of a nation, and a given nation’s classics concurrently function as an accumulator and a conveyance of that nation’s culture. The translation of our classics is of great significance to the enhancement of our cultural vitality, to the resistance against cultural hegemony and to the promotion of world peace. (Zhuo Zhenying, 2011: 6—8) As the Yue songs constitute a cultural heritage we are supposed to cherish, it is necessary to further the studies of them, to allow them a new form of life and a new space for existence by rendering them into English. It is that awareness that inspires the compilation of the present anthology, which is intended to reflect the glory of the Yue culture and silhouette the charm of the Yue songs.

A good translator of classics is supposed to have “the most sublimated benevolence as is symbolized by water, which benefits the myriad without vying for anything for itself,” (Laozi, The Tao Te Ching) so that he will regard world peace and public interests as his sole purpose. Only then can he conduct his translation and research in the spirit of rigourousness without the slightest touch of plagiary or impetuosity. “However can we conduct anything unkind, /or practice anything that is malevolent?” (Qu Yuan, Tales of Woe)

A good translator of classics is also supposed to be a good thinker, whose vision and breath of mind may enable him to pave the way for the academic community and face whatever setbacks and frustrations courageously. “Now that pure and fair my inner world will remain, / What matters if I stay hungry and away pine?” (Qu Yuan, Tales of Woe)

Moreover, a good translator of classics is supposed to obtain the basic inter-cultural and bilingual knowledge, so that he may not commit such silly mistakes as to coin the illogical concept of “cultural classics”, or to put the character “君” in the poem “Oh, Providence” into “heaven above” and render “长命无绝衰” into “Let it endure despite the fates above.”

To bring out the aesthetic values of the original to the maximum, the verse translation theory of the poetic paradigm (with The Theoretical Outline of Verse Translation as its representative work) has been adopted as a guide, and comments and annotations, which are supposed to provide relevant background knowledge, analyze the artistic features of and clarify the references to the songs, are expected to be pertinent. As to the academic inquiries and discussions, such as those about the sex of the Yue who sang The Yue’s Song (《越人歌》), about the interpretation of “绣被” and “不訾诟耻”, etc., they are included in the Appendixes.

As the first attempt to familiarize the world with the songs in question, this anthology can offer only a bunch of flowers sampled from the blooming garden of the Yue songs, which span chronologically from the pre-Qin period to the contemporary era, with English versions, comments and annotations. Undoubtedly the samplings may be far from typical, comprehensive and representative. Such as they are, they express the sentiments of the Yues and reflect the social realities of the times.

Subjective as well as objective factors have determined the limitations of the present anthology. Admittedly, the compiler-translator’s correlative knowledge is scant. Besides, the objects of extant researches are mostly confined to ethnical and regional songs, and no complete coverage of the songs is available, let alone relevant English versions that the author might refer to. Needless to say the anthology may leave much to be desired. The compiler-translator will happily embrace criticisms from the academic circles.

The Research Center of Southern Culture, a provincial key base for philosophic and social studies, has sponsored the present research. Prof. Chen Yulan (陈玉兰), Prof. Chen Changyi (陈昌义), Prof. Chen Qiqiang (陈其强) and Prof. Zhou Lindong (周林东), as well as my colleagues at the Institute of Researches on the Translation of Classics and the leadership of the College of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang Normal University, have given me valuable supports and encouragements in the course of the research. Dr. Xu Weijie (徐微洁) has willingly lent me a helping hand in accomplishing part of the translation. Ms. Xu Xiaojuan of the Commercial Press has benefited me a lot with her conscientious work. Various websites and reference books have provided me with valuable data and information. Hereby I wish to render my heartfelt thanks to the above-mentioned friends, sources and institutions.

Zhuo Zhenying

Institute of Researches on the Translation

of Classics, Zhejiang Normal University

November 18, 2015