Proverbs in H.A. Giles’ Gems of Chinese Literature : A Bilingual Version
Compiled by Ping-wei Huang FICTION Hong Mai Two Stories from Yijian zhi
Translated by Alister Inglis The Three Taoists of Jade Ford Third Daughter Xie Zhang Henshui Eighty-one Dreams
Translated by T. M. McClellan Prologue: Remnants from Rats’ Teeth Dream the Seventy-second: ‘I Am the Monkey King’ Guo Zheng The Journey of the Wolf
Translated by Susan Wilf POETRY Feng Menglong Caught in the Bushes
Translated by Brian Holton and Chu Chiyu Hsi Muren Five Poems
Translated by Angela Ball and J.Q. Zheng Experiment (1) Experiment (2) A Blossoming Tree Looking Back Bride in Loulan Shu Ting Mother Tongue, a Poem Cycle
Translated by Mary M. Y. Fung Christmas Eve Is Coming Profound Subject Matter Truth White Crane Reading Snow Han Dong Five Poems
Translated by Tony Prince and Tao Naikan Afternoon Sunlight In Shenzhen Beneath the Streetlights Night Flight Return Worldly Love Notes on Authors Notes on Contributors Book Notices

The Three Taoists of Jade Ford 玉津三道士
By Hong Mai
Translated by Alister Inglis

It was during the Daguan period [1107-1110] that the brothers Qian, gentlemen from Suzhou, travelled to study at the Imperial Academy. Spring had just blossomed. They had some time to spare while waiting for an exam, and so they went on a jaunt to the Jade Ford Gardens.

There they met three Taoists who greeted them, and they began a conversation. The Taoists had prominent foreheads and long eyebrows. Their words were pure and frest—pleasing to the ear. After a while they took their leave, saying, ‘We have a brew of some small reputation which we would like to share with you, but unfortunately the sun is already low. Let us meet here again tomorrow at high noon and we can entertain you then. Don’t be late or you may miss us.’

The Qians agreed. Then, with a laugh, the smallest Taoist remarked, ‘Should you miss the appointed time, you can dig up the ground here to find us.’ Thinking this a joke, the two of them laughed heartily and took their leave.

The following day the Qians were detained on other business, and it was evening by the time they reached the place of rendezvous. There they found the remains of a feast strewn untidily about. The Taoists were nowhere to be seen. Despondently, they remained there for quite some time until the younger of the brothers asked, ‘Could they have been immortals?’

So saying, he fetched a spade and began to dig away at the ground. He had not gone down more than a foot or so when he came upon a stone casket. Opening it, they found images of three Taoists. Their head-dresses were just like those worn by the Taoists they had met the previous day. There was also a book of occult science which contained the formulae for transmuting mercury into silver.

The younger brother suggested, ‘Brother, you take the book. I would like to have the images to take home and make offerings of incense to.’ The elder brother eagerly agreed.

When the exam came the younger brother met with success. The older one returned to Suzhou where he tested out the formulae. There was not one which did not repay his efforts. Within a few years he had bought thousands of acres of land and became a wealthy man.

One day, however, while he sat on his verandah, the arrival of three Taoists was announced. No sooner had he received them when one of them rose and addressed him thus, ‘Do you remember our meeting in the Jade Ford Gardens all those years ago? You took our book of celestial learning, but rather than use it to aid the poor, you exploited it for the sake of your own insatiable greed. Already your wealth has far exceeded its allotment. Heaven, therefore, decrees that you be cut off, and today is the day of your reckoning. If, however, you change your ways this very day, then you may look forward to three more years. If not, you will die tonight. We have been banished to the world of mortals for revealing heaven’s secrets, so naturally it falls on us to carry out this sentence.’

After they had left, Master Qian was struck by a wave of remorse. He immediately burned the book and smashed his alchemist’s stove. He closed the door of his laboratory, never to open it again.

The next day, the smallest Taoist returned. Before Qian could sit down with him, he was told that his concubine had just given birth and he rushed in to see her. She had given birth to a boy. Returning to his guest, he dound that the Taoist was nowhere to be seen. He questioned his servants, but they knew nothing.

Qian died within three years.

Looking Back
By Hsi Muren
Translated by Angela Ball and J.Q. Zheng

Still expecting a beautiful love story
I give you up without hesitation
In my wanderings, I seek and search—but
Unexpectedly, looking back, I see
Your youthful self has never parted from me.

You, who have never parted from me, stay in my heart
Spring comes, and you sing and sing about
Riverside Road with its grey sand and blazing sun
Bell’Aqua Street awash with moonlight
Early morning in the garden where a jasmine was picked
On the ferry’s prow a skirt fluttering in the wind

Fluttering in the wind, then falling in a shower
The years buried deep in the earth
turned into amber.
A grey dawn, I look back sadly.
My dear friend,
Must the bird first immolate itself
To be a phoenix?
Must youth be ignorant,
And love sad?

席慕容：回首

一直在盼望著一段美麗的愛
所以我毫不猶疑地將你捨棄
流浪的途中我不斷尋覓
卻沒料到    回首之時
年輕的你從未稍離

從未稍離的你在我心中
春天來時便反復地呤唱
那濱江路上的灰沙炎日
那麗水街前一地的月光
那清晨園中為誰摘下的茉莉
那渡船頭上風裏翻飛的裙裳

在風裏翻飛    然後紛紛墜落
歲月深埋在土中便成琥珀
在灰色的黎明前我悵然回顧
親愛的朋友啊
難道鳥必要自焚才能成為鳳凰
難道青春必要愚昧
愛    必得憂傷

Return
By Han Dong
Translated by Tony Prince and Tao Naikan

I returned from Shenzhen to Nanjing
There was still some daylight left
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand time
You couldn’t say anything so naïve
—Having taken a padded jacket with me
I put it on when I went back home
And yet, as the evening approached
My body retained the southern sunlight
Still unextinguished

I went knocking at my friends’ doors
And called them out into the icy streets
I said stupidly: It’s after midnight, in Shenzhen
Everything is just starting!
No one argued with me, being
Used to silence
They got on with their lives in double beds as husband and wife
Or back to back, drawing warmth from each other

(For a month afterwards
I was full of rebellious hopes and desires
And cried joyfully—’I have changed!’
But it was only a disturbance of my biological clock
The difference in time zones, or the changes in my schedule
That a mysterious and unseen hand was slowly adjusting
In the darkness)

Now I am sinking deeper into the past
As though falling from the sky, continuing
My plunge into the earth. Winters is settling into its siege
Like a great army. Even metals contract in the cold
But in the south, the softest things open up in the finest way
Like flowers, and their sexual organs
Licentiousness depends on warm ocean breezes and the trad winds

Now I’m back in Nanjing
Living near ice, snow and frost
Like the saints of ancient times in the mountains of Central Asia
Close to snow-capped peaks and glaciers
The tropics can produce no saints. I know very well
That Jesus was not a black man

Now I’m back, back in Nanjing
Getting on with a middling kind of life
Between sun and ice, I inhabit
The cold shadows of my room
Occasionally visiting a nightclub
That warm cave
Where I am far from eternity or a moment of excitement
I’m like any commonplace and painful existence
That’s all I am

5 January 1995

韓東：歸來

我回來了，從深圳到南京
白天還沒有結束
不能說我不理解時間
不能說，這樣幼稚的話
——既然我已預備了棉衣
穿著它到家
只是，夜晚降臨，那南方的陽光在我的體內
仍未熄滅

我去拍擊朋友家的門
把他們喚到寒冷的街上來
我愚蠢地說：零點剛過，在深圳
一切不過剛剛開始！
沒有人和我爭辯，他們
習慣於沉默
在夫妻的床上延長夫妻的生活
或背靠（烤）著背，互相取暖

（其後的一個月裹
我滿懷背叛的願望
我歡呼—— 「我已變樣 ！」
然而不過是生物鐘的紊亂
時差或作息表的改變
一隻神秘的手於暗中
慢慢調整）

我更深地陷入往昔
就像從空中落下，繼續
鑽入泥土。冬天像一支大軍深入
圍困。寒冷甚至使金屬收縮
而在南方，最柔軟的就最美好地開放
像花朵，和生殖器官
淫蕩依賴於海上和貿易的熏風

我回到了南京
起居在冰雪和霜凍附近
像那些遠古的聖人，在西亞、帕米爾
在雪峰和冰川的附近
熱帶是不會產生聖人的。我理解了
耶穌絕不是一個黑人

我回來了，回到了南京
繼續某種中閒生活
在太陽和冰雪之間，處於
房間陰冷的影子裏
偶爾出入於歌廳
那溫暖的洞穴
遠離永恆或刺激的一瞬
我像所有平庸而痛苦的存在
我就是

一九九五年一月五日