Unknown
佚名

The Metropolitan Museum of Art states:

The Nine Songs are lyrical, shamanistic incantations dedicated to nine classes of deities worshipped by the Chu people of south China during the first millennium B.C. The original text consists of eleven songs, ten of which are transcribed and illustrated here. The illustrations are preceded by a portrait of the poet Qu Yuan (343–277 B.C.), which is accompanied by an essay entitled "The Fisherman," recounting the poet's state of mind toward the end of his life.

Zhao Mengfu's paintings for the Nine Songs in the baimiao, or "white-drawing" style, are based on compositions by Li Gonglin (ca. 1041–1106) and were a primary source for later fourteenth-century paintings of this theme by Zhang Wu (active 1333–65) and others. Because the calligraphy in the album does not compare with the best of Zhao Mengfu's writing, it is probable that these leaves represent close, reliable copies of Zhao's important work, executed during the fourteenth century. One leaf, "The Lord of Clouds," is a later replacement (no earlier than the seventeenth century).

Chinese text, standard script:

與女遊兮九河，　　 衝風起兮橫波。
乘水車兮荷蓋，　　 駕兩龍兮驂螭。
登崑崙兮四望，　 心飛揚兮浩蕩。
日將暮兮悵忘歸，　惟極浦兮寤懷。

魚鱗鱗屋兮龍堂，　 紫貝闕兮朱宮。
靈何為兮水中。 乘白黿兮逐文魚。　　
與女遊兮河之渚， 流澌紛兮將來下。

子交手兮東行，　　 送美人兮南浦。
波滔滔兮來迎，　　 魚鄰鄰兮媵予。

右河伯

English translation:

I wander with you by the Nine Mouths of the river
When the storm wind rises and lashes up the waves.
I ride a water chariot with a canopy of lotus;
Two dragons draw it, between two water-serpents.

I climb the Kun-lun mountain and look over the four quarters,
And my heart leaps up in me, beating wildly.
Though the day will soon end, I forget to go in my pleasure:
Longingly I look back to that distant shore.
Of fish-scales his palace is, with a dragon-scale hall;
Purple cowrie gate-towers; rooms of pearl.
And what does the god do, down there in the water?

Riding a white turtle, he chases the spotted fishes.
Let me play with you among the river’s islets,
While the swollen waters come rushing on their way!

Eastward you journey, with hands stately folded,
Bearing your fair bride to the southern harbour.
The waves come racing up to meet me,
And shoals of fishes are my bridal train.

To the right is ‘The River Earl’

The album comprises:

• Leaf A
• Leaf B
  Portrait of Qu Yuan
  屈原像
• Leaf C
  The Great Unity, God of the Eastern Sky
  東皇太一
• Leaf D
  The Lord within the Clouds
  雲中君
• Leaf E
  The Goddess of the Xiang
  湘君
• Leaf F
  The Lady of the Xiang
  湘夫人
• Leaf G
  The Greater Master of Fate
  大司命
• Leaf H
  The Lesser Master of Fate
  少司命
• Leaf I
  The Lord of the East
  東君
• Leaf J
  The River Earl
  河伯
• Leaf K
  The Mountain Spirit
  山鬼
• Leaf L
  Hymn to the Fallen
  國殤

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40511

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• http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40511

• https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

• 1973.121.15a?p

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