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On the whereabouts and identity of the place called ‘K'ung-Sang’ (Hollow Mulberry) in early Chinese mythology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Extract
One of the places that plays a role in a number of myths and legends that survive from ancient China is the place called K'ung-sang 
, Hollow Mulberry. Confucius is said to have been born in a place called K'ung-sang, and Yi Yin, the man who served as chief minister to T'ang, founder of the Shang or Yin dynasty (traditional reign dates, 1766–1753 b.c.) was born in an actual hollow mulberry tree. By force of the Confucius connexion, commentaries often identify K'ung-sang as a place in the state of Lu, if not precisely Ch'ü-fu, the home town of Confucius. But K'ung-sang is located and identified in a number of ways in early texts: it is a mountain in the North or the East; it is a place that is being attacked by a demon; it is the capital of various Ti 
(emperors or gods); and in one source at least, it is the name of a musical instrument, a zither (se
).
- Type
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- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 69 - 90
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1995
References
1 See for example Kao Yu's 
(fl. a.d. 200) commentary to Huai-nan-tzu, ‘Pen-ching 
’, or Hung Hsing-tsu's 
(1090–1155) sub-commentary on the ‘Nine Songs’ (Chiu-ko) in the Ch'u-tz'u. These and other sources that so identify K'ung-sang are noted by Yüan K'o 
in his commentary to Shan-hai ching 4Google Scholar, ‘Tung-shan ching’. See his Shan-hai ching chiao-chu (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1980), 105.Google Scholar Lu was located in south-western Shantung.
2 Throughout this paper I assume the reader is aware of the ‘euhemerization’—or better ‘reverse euhemerization’—we encounter in early Chinese texts, which resulted in, as Bodde puts it, ‘the transformation of what were once myths and Gods into seemingly authentic history and human beings’ (Bodde, Derk, ‘Myths of ancient China’, 48, in his Essays on Chinese civilization (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981)).Google Scholar Thus ‘Ti’ are presented as early emperors; we are quite sure they were the gods—supreme gods—in early myths.
3 In addition to the studies of Jui Yi-fu, Wen Yi-to and others cited below in part II (nn. 89 ff.), on this point see LeBlanc, Charles's article, ‘Le mythe de Fuxi et Nugua et la tradition orale Miao’, Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes de l'Asie de l'Est, 2, 1981, 93–128.Google Scholar
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’, 14.3ab, (SPPY ed.). Yu-shen can also be pronounced Yu-hsin. It is the name of a state written in the common for this time form of ‘Having/Possessing the area of Shen/Hsin’, and Mr. Yu-shen (Yu-shen-shih) refers to the clan that controls that parcel of land, and specifically the head of that clan, the ruler. Thus, the daughter of Mr. Yu-shen was, like Pharoah's daughter, a princess.
7 The narrator seems to be reading the ‘Yin’ in Yi Yin 
as the ‘yin’ that means ‘to draw out of’ (
). Thus, Yi Yin is ‘the one who was drawn out of the Yi River’. This makes the parallel with the birth story of Moses all the more striking since the name of Moses is explained to mean ‘he who was drawn out of the water’ (Exodus 2: 10). The Hebrew verb ‘draw out’ is mashah.
8 Ch'u-tz'u, ‘T'ien-wen’, 3.18ab, 177–8. (Page references to the Ch'u-tz'u in this article are to the Taiwan printing [Chung-wen Press] of Sadao, Takeji's 
Soji Sakuin, Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu; Ch'u-tz'u so-yin.)Google Scholar Continuation of the above cited Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu passage helps us to understand these questions. The text reads: ‘When he had grown up and developed into a worthy, Yi Yin came to be known by T'ang, and T'ang sent someone to ask for him from the Yu-shen family. But Mr. Yu-shen wouldn't agree to this. Now Yi Yin also wanted to throw in with T'ang. As a result, T'ang requested a bride to marry. Mr. Yu-shen was delighted and sent Yi Yin along as a “maid” for his daughter.’ On the date of the ‘T'ien-wen’ text, see Hawkes, David, The songs of the South (London and New York: Penguin Books, 1985), 126.Google Scholar The archaic nature of the text makes it likely that the reputed author of the earliest parts of the Ch'u-tz'u, Ch'ü Yuan (340?–278 b.c.), merely edited or adapted materials that were already quite ancient.
9 See p. 196 in Yih-fu, Ruey [Yi-fu, Jui], ‘Miao-tsu ti hung-shui ku-shih yü Fu-hsi Nü-kua ti ch'uan-shuo’ 
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11 p. 45 in ibid.
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14 Shih-chi 47, vol. 6, 1906 (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1959 ed.).Google Scholar
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17 Hawkes, David, The songs of the South, 232.Google Scholar
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28 ibid.
29 On ‘Purple Tenuity’ (tzu-wei) as the residence of the supreme deity up in the sky, see Schafer, Edward, Pacing the void: T'ang approaches to the stars (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 47.Google Scholar
30 Hawkes, , The songs of the South, 301.Google Scholar For the original see Ch'u-tz'u so-yin; Ch'u-tz'u pu-chu, 16.29b, 538.Google Scholar Once again, that K'ung-sang is a mountain is pointed out by Wang Yi in his commentary; the word ‘mountain’ does not occur in the original text.
31 Huai-nan-tzu 5.16a–17b. For other sets of correlations and the Han practice of identifying originally distinct Ti in order to produce consistent ‘systems’, see Karlgren, Bernard, ‘Legend and cult in ancient China’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, XVIII, 1946, 199–365, especially 221–34.Google Scholar
32 On various dates proposed for the different parts of the text see, for example, Fracasso, Riccardo, ‘Holy mothers of ancient China: a new approach to the Hsi-wang-mu problem’, T'oung Poo LXXIV, 1988, 12–13 and the notes.Google Scholar
33 Shan-hai ching 3Google Scholar, ‘Pei-shan ching’, 94Google Scholar in Yüan K'o's Shan-hai ching chiao-chu.
34 Shan-hai ching 4Google Scholar, ‘Tung-shan ching’, 105Google Scholar in K'o, Yüan, Shan-hai ching chiao-chu.Google Scholar
35 Mathieu, Rémi, Étude sur la mythologie et l'ethnologie de la Chine ancienne (Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1983), 218, nn. 3–6.Google Scholar
36 Granet, , Danses et légendes, 433Google Scholar, makes this point as well.
37 Huai-nan-lzu 8.6a. Traditional reign dates of ‘Emperor’ Shun are 2255–2205 b.c.
38 See Huai-nan-tzu 3.la. The text reads: ‘In antiquity Kung-kung fought with Chuan-hsü over who would be Ti; he got angry and butted his head against Pu-chou Mt. Heaven's pillar broke off and Earth's cords snapped, so that Heaven now slants toward the north-west, the result being that the sun and the moon and the stars and constellations now move in that direction. [On the other hand] the Earth no longer fills up [all the space] in the south-east, the result being that rivers and flood waters and dust and dirt now settle down in that direction.’
39 Huai-nan-tzu, 15.1b.
40 ibid., 6.7a.
41 ibid. For the possible identification of Kung-kung and the black dragon, see K'o, Yuan, Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih (Peking: Jen-min wen-hsüeh, 1979), 24.Google Scholar Quite a few Chinese scholars feel that the Kung-kung and Nü-kua stories were originally distinct and that no attempt was made to fit the two together until Wang Ch'ung (a.d.27–91) did it in his Lun-heng; for the arguments see p. 29 in Yuan K'o. I will say more about Chi-chou (Chi Territory or Chi State) below. Here it is enough to note that Chi-chou in the Huai-nan-tzu is the central chou of the chiu-chou (Nine Territories/States); thus, it represents the very heart of the land. Also, note how Nil-kua's killing the black dragon to put an end to the flood parallels Huang-ti's slaying of Ch'ih-yu (done in Chi-chou) in the next passage (Passage 9) discussed.
42 Kuo-yü, ‘Chou-yü, hsia’, 3.5b (SPPY ed.). The passage makes the connexion between Kung-kung and Kun explicit for it continues: ‘At the time of Yu-yü (Shun), Earl Kun (Po-kun) of Yu-ch'ung spread abroad his degenerate thoughts, taking up and pursuing the faults of Kung-kung.’
It is worth mentioning in this connexion that a number of scholars in the 1920s and 30s felt strongly, on the basis of this passage and other types of evidence, that Kun and Kung-kung were originally one and the same, the name of this spirit or demi-god being Kun when pronounced rapidly, and Kung-kung when said slowly. For a review of the relevant evidence see, for example, K'uan, Yang
, ‘Chung-kuo shang-ku-shih tao-lun 
’, in Chieh-kang, Ku
, ed., Ku-shih pien 
(Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1982), vol. 7A, 329–35.Google Scholar
43 The Chinese correlations being East/Spring, South/Summer, West/Autumn, and North/Winter.
44 Translated by Karlgren, Bernard, The Book of Documents (Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1950), 3.Google Scholar
45 Maspero, Henri, ‘Légendes mythologiques dans le Chou king’, Journal Asiatique, CCIV, 1924, 1–100.Google Scholar On this passage see pp. 88–93.
46 ibid., 92–3.
47 Boltz, William, ‘Kung Kung and the flood: reverse euhemerism in the Yao Tien’, T'oung Pao, LXVII, 3–5, 1981, 141–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the present quote see p. 147. That the name Kung-kung is closely allied with the word for ‘flood’ in Chinese—hung 
(water + kung)—has also been noted.
48 ibid., 150.
49 Boltz, , ‘Kung Kung and the flood’, 147–9.Google Scholar
50 Boltz's point, not mine. See p. 148 in his article.
51 Karlgren, , The Book of DocumentsGoogle Scholar, 5 translates ‘He banished Kung Kung to Yu-chou 
, he banished Huan Tou to Ch'ung-shan 
; he made the San Miao skulk in San-wei 
, he killed Kun on Yü-shan 
.’ Yu-chou is in the north; Ch'ung-shan is in the south; the San-wei (Three Perils) are in the west; and Yü-shan, Feather Mt., is normally located in the east.
52 Boltz, , ‘Kung Kung and the flood’, 149.Google Scholar
53 From the ‘Ch'i-shih 
’ chapter of the Kuei-tsang as cited in Ch'u-hsüeh chi 9, vol. 1, 205Google Scholar. The Kuei-tsang is a book of uncertain date, though tradition claims that it was the Yi (Book of Changes; Book of Divination) of the Shang/Yin dynasty. (See, for example, Ch'ung, Wang's [a.d.27–91], Lun-heng, 28.5a.Google Scholar) Karlgren (‘Legends and cults’, 205–6Google Scholar) felt that a book by this name did exist in the Chou, as the title is attested in the Chou li, but the text was lost by middle Han. P'u, Kuo (a.d.176–324)Google Scholar cites extensively from the book, and using his citations and those found in other texts, attempts have been made to reconstitute the text (see Ma Kuo-han 
, ed., Yü-han shan-fang chi yi-shu 
, Taipei: Wen-hai, 1967), vol. 1, 16–28Google Scholar). Though ‘Ch'i-shih’ is normally understood to be a chapter in the Kuei-tsang, Karlgren regarded the Kuei-tsang ch'i-shih, cited so frequently by Kuo P'u, as a later, separate treatise meaning ‘Explanations of the divinatory figures of the Kuei tsang’ (p. 205)Google Scholar. The similarity of this passage with the Kung-kung passage was also noted by Granet, (Danses et légendes, 435–6)Google Scholar, who added that Ch'ih-yu and Kung-kung were the rivals (and the ministers) of the ruler.
54 Shan-hai ching 17Google Scholar; Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 430.Google Scholar
55 Note the parallel to Nü-kua's attacking the ‘black dragon’ to get rid of the flood.
56 Mark Edward Lewis has shown how the Huang-ti/Ch'ih-yu conflict was reinterpreted in Warring States times to valorize the state's use of ‘civilized’ warfare, with trained armies using the latest in advanced technology. In these later accounts of the conflict, Huang-ti is the astute, informed general at the head of disciplined troops who defeats the brute strength of the savage Ch'ih-yu in a famous battle at a place called Cho-lu. But we seem to have a very primitive version of that battle in the Shan-hai ching. And noting the control over wind and rain that Ch'ih-yu seems to have in this account, Lewis speculates that, in the beginning, ‘Chi You [Ch'ih-yu] was perhaps the mythic projection of the rainmaking shaman or shamaness.’ (See Lewis, Mark Edward, Sanctioned violence in early China, Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1990, ch. v, 165ffGoogle Scholar.) Along these same lines, Edward Schafer has shown that ‘ritual exposure’ of shamans and shamanesses to the sun and heat in ancient China was one way to make it rain, and that in such rituals shamanesses assumed the role of the drought demon. (Schafer, Edward H., ‘Ritual exposure in ancient China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, XIV, 1951, 130–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.) Moreover, Ch'en Meng-chia 
and Marcel Granel have both noted the interesting fact that Tung Chung-shu 
(179?–104? b.c.) claimed that when seeking rain in the summer you should sacrifice to Ch'ih-yu and also expose to the heat mortars and pestles. (Meng-chia, Ch'en, ‘Shang-tai ti shen-hua yü wu-shu 
’, Yen-ching hsüeh-pao, [1936], 514Google Scholar; Granet, , Danses et légendes, 430Google Scholar. These instructions are found in the ‘Ch'iu-yü 
’ [Seeking rain] chapter of Tung's Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu 
[chapter 74].)
57 See Maspero, , ‘Légendes mythologiques’, 55–8.Google Scholar
58 ‘Impound’ is Schafer's translation of hsü.
59 In many ways, as we will see, K'ung-sang reminds us of Mt. K'un-lun, the axis mundi in much of later Chinese cosmology. It may not be irrelevant to remember here, therefore, that K'un-lun has ‘nine layers’ (chiu-ts'eng, or chiu-ch'ung).
60 K'o, Yüan, Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih, 135.Google Scholar
61 See Maspero, , ‘Légendes mythologique’, 79–80Google Scholar. Also, according to the Shu-yi chi 
(A.2ab, 1536 in the Han Wei ts'ung-shu ed.) people in the villages in T'ai-yüan still sacrificed to Ch'ih-yu in the Han.
62 See Major, John, ‘Topography and cosmology in Early Han thought: chapter four of Ihe Huai-nan-tzu’ (Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard Universily, 1973)Google Scholar, Appendix A: ‘The nine provinces and their artributes’, 87–109.Google Scholar
63 Huai-nan-tzu 4.1a.
64 Shih-chi, ‘Chou-pen chi’, vol. 1, 128.Google Scholar
65 Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu 5.9a.
66 As cited in T'ai-p'ing yü-lan 3.6a, 16.Google Scholar
67 For the relevant passages see p. 429 and pp. 392–3 in Ch'un-ch'iu ching-chuan yin-te (standard concordance to the Tso-chuan).
68 K'o, Yüan (Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih, 73)Google Scholar feels strongly that the Shih-yi chi was actually written by Ch'i, Hsiao of the Liang dynasty (502–26)Google Scholar who is credited with editing the text into its present form. For a translation and study of the Shih-yi chi see Chapin, Foster Lawrence's ‘The “Shih-i chi” and its relationship to the genre known as “chih-kuai hsiao-shuo”’ (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Washington, 1974).Google Scholar
69 Shih-yi chi, 1.4b–5b, 1562–3.Google Scholar
70 ibid., 1562.
71 Pi, Lo, Lu-shih, on ‘K'ung-sang-shih’Google Scholar (Mr. K'ung-sang) in ‘Ch'ien-chi 3’, vol. 1, 9b–10a (SPPY ed.).Google Scholar
72 ibid. His words are: ‘Yi Yin was a man from Shen. Therefore the Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu, Ku-shih k'ao, and so on, all say Yi Yin was born in K'ung-sang, and the old city of K'ung-sang is in the present Ch'en-liu. Thus this was decidedly not in Lu. Thus geographical works say that to the south of K'ung-sang is [the state of] Ch'i, and to the north is Ch'en-liu, each about 30 li away. And there, there's an Yi Yin Village.’
73 Archaic reconstructions in this paper are marked with an asterisk* and follow Fa-kao, Chou, ed., A pronouncing dictionary of Chinese characters in archaic & ancient Chinese, Mandarin & Cantonese (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1973)Google Scholar. The first reconstruction is Bernhard Karlgren's, the second is that of Chou Fa-kao.
74 For the moment I will do the same, though at the end of this paper I will propose for discussion and reflection a new interpretation of ch'iung-sang, which if correct would mean that K'ung-sang and Ch'iung-sang were originally two different things in two entirely different locations.
75 Which seems to assume a common view of Chinese cosmology in which China was surrounded by seas in all four directions.
76 Shih-yi chi, 1.5b. For the standard correlations of Ti and directions see above, p. 75.
77 Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 338.Google Scholar
78 Shan-hai ching, ‘Ta-huang nan-ching’, Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 381.Google Scholar
79 Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 381Google Scholar. Maspero (‘Légendes mythologiques’, 8–9Google Scholar) argues, convincingly I think, that the line ‘It was she who controlled the suns and the moons’ is actually commentary that has become confused with the text. Without that line, the passage reads as a 4-line metric poem with rhyme at the end of lines 1, 2, and 4 (ts'ang/‘green’, chang/‘spread out’, and ming[*mian]/‘bright’).
80 Granet, , Danses et légendes, 435.Google Scholar
81 ibid., 435–6.
82 Maspero, , ‘Légendes mythologiques’, 17.Google Scholar
83 ibid., 26–7.
84 Hsin, Ho, Chu-shen ti ch'i-yüan 
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87 While we might want to conclude that K'ung-sang was the axis mundi of the Shang, their ‘central’ cosmic tree or mountain, Sarah Allan's depiction of the Shang conception of space strongly suggests that they had no central pillar. The earth for the Shang was shaped like the plastron of the turtle, ya-shaped 
, with five regions, one in each of the four cardinal directions and one in the centre of space (Shang land). The four pillars/mountains that held up the sky were, like the turtle's legs, in the corners—in the north-east, south-east, south-west, and northwest (remember that Kung-kung knocks over the north-western pillar). When additional pillars were added to this in each of the cardinal directions (those in the East and West being understood as the Fu-sang and Jo trees), then there would be eight pillars or mountains holding up the sky. But the turtle's dome-shaped upper shell (the sky) needs no pillar to support it in the middle. (See Allan, , The shape of the turtle, 103–11.)Google Scholar
88 Normally it is an elder brother and younger sister, though the opposite is also found.
89 See above n. 9.
90 Yi-fu, Jui, ‘Miao-tsu ti hung-shui ku-shih’, 191.Google Scholar
91 See arguments made on pp. 174–6. One of Jui's arguments is that there were no dentilabials (f, v) in ancient Chinese, so Fu would have been Bu, and Kua is very close to Ku-eh (Kua broken down into initial consonant, medial vowel and final vowel would be k-u-a). Jui also notes that whenever the Miao use Chinese to tell this story they always change Bu-i into Fu-hsi.
92 See, for example, Lu Tung's (d. 835) poem ‘Yü Ma I chieh-chiao shih’ (Ch'üan T'ang shih, 388Google Scholar); also note Li K'ang's ‘Tu-i chih’ cited below.
93 His ‘Fu-hsi k'ao’, originally published in Jen-wen k'o-hsüeh hsüeh-pao. Here using the text as printed in Wen Yi-to ch'üan-chi (Shanghai: K'ai-ming shu-tien, 1948), I, 3–68.Google Scholar
94 Yi-to, Wen, ‘Fu-hsi k'ao’, 67.Google Scholar
95 ibid., 59–60.
96 Li Hui [Li Hwei], ‘T'ai-wan yü tung-nan-ya ti t'ung-pao-p'ei-ou-hsing hung-shui ch'uan-shuo 
,’ [The deluge legend of sibling-mating type in Taiwan and South-East Asia], Bulletin of the Ethnological Society of China (Taipei), 1, 1955, 171–206.Google Scholar
97 ibid., 195. Eberhard (Local cultures, 44–445Google Scholar), like Li Hui, associated the brother/sister marriage motif with Liao culture, but he saw the ‘bronze drums’ as part of the ancient Yüeh culture (Local cultures, 366–8).Google Scholar
98 ibid., 193–5.
99 ‘Table 1’ is located between pp. 204 and 205 of the text.
100 Liu Ch'eng-huai, Chung-kuo shang-ku shen-hua 
(Shanghai: Wen-i, 1988).
101 See pp. 556–9.
102 Yüan K'o (Ku shen-hua hsüan-shih, 39–40Google Scholar) and others point out that in the Han dynasty Shih-pen 
Nü Kua is credited with inventing the sheng (‘mouth organ’). Yuan also notes that the sheng is still played by the Miao and T'ung minorities, and that in some places it is made with a gourd while in other places they hollow out wood.
103 Clark, , Among the tribes in south-west China (London: Morgan & Scott, Ltd., 1911) 50–4.Google Scholar
104 Remarkably similar flood myths are found in Mespamerica: this needs to be studied. For example, in his article ‘An analysis of the Deluge myth hi Mesoamerica’, Fernando Horcasitas records the following from among the Huichol: ‘A man felling trees found that the trees he had cut down grew again overnight. He spied and found that it was the grandmother Nakawé who was doing the mischief. She told him that he was working in vain, since a great deluge was soon to destroy the world. She also instructed him to make a box out of a tree and to put in it grains of corn, beans, a fire, five squash stems to feed the fire, and a black bitch. For five years the box floated on the waters…’. See Dundes, Alan (ed.), The flood myth (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 203 ff.Google Scholar
105 The Shu-yi chi account of Ch'ih-yu (A.2ab, 1536) describes him as a monster who ‘had a human body with oxen hooves, four eyes and six hands’. It continues, ‘In Ch'in and Han times there was a saying that Ch'ih-yu's sideburns were like swords or spears, and that on his head he had horns…[that] he used to gore people.’
106 The drum was made with the hide of a mythical beast called the K'uei 
, and it was struck with the bones of the Thunder Marsh beast. See, for example, Shan-hai ching 14Google Scholar, ‘Ta-huang tung-ching’, Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 361.Google Scholar
107 Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chen-pen 14B.7a (SPPY ed.). Yü's name has often been understood to mean some kind of water-reptile or some kind of fish, with which it is homophonous (yü 
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108 The songs of the South, 126.Google Scholar
109 Using the text in Pai-hai, vol. 1, C.19a (p. 311).Google Scholar
110 See, for example, pp. 150–61. That it was located in the ‘North-west’ in the Shan-hai ching, Major shows, relates to Han understanding of themselves in the SE of the ‘Nine Continents’.
111 K'un-lun is explicitly identified with Mt. Sumera, the axis mundi in Indian cosmology, in Wang Tzu-nien's Shih-yi chi (10.1a–2a, 1610).
112 See Girardot, Norman, Myth and meaning in early Taoism: the theme of chaos (hun-tun) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 21–9 and 202–7.Google Scholar
113 ibid., 24.
114 Stein, Rolf (tr. by Brooks, Phyllis), The world in miniature: container gardens and dwellings in Far Eastern religious thought (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 65.Google Scholar
115 ibid., 66.
116 Eberhard, , Local cultures, 208.Google Scholar That t'ung-wood was used to make zithers and lutes is confirmed in the Shih (Book of Odes, Book of Songs). Karlgren (The Book of Odes, 33Google Scholar) translates from Shih, no. 50: ‘…he planted it with hazel and chestnut, with yi trees, t'ung trees, Catalpa, lacquer trees, so that they could make guitars and lutes (ch'in-se).’
117 ibid., 366–8.
118 ibid., 333.
119 ‘Hai-nei tung-ching’, Shan-hai ching chiao-chu, 332.Google Scholar
120 Mathieu, , Étude sur la mythologie et l'ethnologie de la Chine ancienne, 509, n. 5.Google Scholar
121 Shih-chi 1, vol. 1, 6.Google Scholar ‘In the East he came to the sea, mounting Mt. Wan and Tai-tsung (Mt. T'ai). In the West he arrived at K'ung-t'ung and mounted Chi-t'ou (Chicken's Head).’ The ‘Chi-chieh’ commentary on this passage cites Ying Shao who says that K'ung-t'ung is the ‘name of a mountain’, and Wei Chao who says ‘It's in Lung-yu’. The ‘So-yin’ commentary on Chi-t'ou says ‘It's in Lung-hsi. One source says it's another name for K'ung-t'ung.’ In chapter 11 of the Chuang-tzu, Huang-ti (the Yellow Emperor) is also said to have visited the Taoist master Kuang-ch'eng-tzu who lived on the mountain K'ung-t'ung. I cannot confirm Rolf Stein's claim (p. 58) that K'ung-t'ung mountain was also the site of Huang-ti's ascension as an immortal; most sources say that was Mt. Ching. But perhaps I am overlooking something.
122 Erh-ya Kuo-chu, ‘Shih-ti’, 6.6b (SPPY ed.).
123 On the constellation Pei-chi, ‘Northern Limit’ or ‘Northern Extreme’ see Schafer, Edward H., Pacing the void, 44–7.Google Scholar Schafer points out that the brightest star in this constellation, which is the second star, Kochab, is known as the actual Pei-chi hsing (Northern Limit Star), and is considered to be the residence and throne of T'ai-yi.
124 On the various ways in which the midpoint of the earth was determined in early Chinese cosmographie literature, see Major, John, ‘Topography and cosmology in Early Han thought’, 47–9.Google Scholar
125 Eberhard, (Local cultures, 207)Google Scholar incorrectly says that Granet equated k'ung-sang and k'ung-t'ung. Granet actually argued that the t'ung and sang trees are structural opposites. Thus, he pointed out that T'ang, the founder of Shang, was buried in T'ung-kung (Paulownia Palace) while his minister Yi Yin was born in a k'ung-sang, hollowed out mulberry (Danses et légendes, 428Google Scholar). And he concluded that Empty Paulownia was in fact the cosmic tree of the West in which the suns set, which was paired with Empty Mulberry, the cosmic tree of the East. (Granet, , Danses et légendes, 441.)Google Scholar
126 On these contacts see, for example, Shizuka, Shirakawa, Chung-kuo shen-hua, 35–51.Google Scholar Shirakawa identifies the ancient Miao with the rice-making culture of Ch'ü-chia-ling 
in the Han river drainage in Hupeh and speculates that the Shang/Yin people also learned the arts of rice-making from them. He feels that the brother-sister (Fu-hsi/Nü-kua) flood myth of the Miao was never recorded in antiquity because the Miao were pushed out of Hupeh further south by their militant northern neighbours and gradually lost contact with the central plain (p. 48).
127 It may also be relevant to note that Bernard Read (Chinese medicinal plants, 26, item 103Google Scholar) gives the habitat for the paulownia tree (Paulownia imperialis) as being the south-eastern and south-central provinces of Chekiang and Hupeh. Also, paulownia wood is often used for making chests and trunks, and the boat of the brother and sister is sometimes identified as a chest or trunk.