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:

廣開兮天門，　　　 紛吾乘兮玄雲。
令飄風兮先驅，　　 使凍雨兮灑塵。
君迴翔兮以下，　　 逾空桑兮從女。
紛捴捴兮九州， 何壽夭兮在予。

高飛兮安翔，　　　 乘清風兮御陰陽。
吾與君兮齋速，　 　導帝之兮九坑。
靈衣兮被被，　　　 玉佩兮離陸。
壹陰兮壹陽，　 眾莫知兮余所為。

折疏麻兮瑤華，　　 將以遺兮離居。
老冉冉兮既極，　　不寖近兮愈疏。
乘龍兮轔轔，　　　 高駝兮沖天。
結桂枝兮延竚，　 羌愈思兮愁人。
愁人兮奈何，　　　 願若今兮無虧。
固人命兮有當，　　 孰離合兮可為。

右大司命

English translation:

Open wide the door of heaven!
On a black cloud I ride in splendour,
Bidding the whirlwind drive before me,
Causing the rainstorm to lay the dust.

In sweeping circles my lord is descending:
‘Let me follow you over the Kong-sang mountain!
See, the teeming peoples of the Nine Lands:
The span of their lives is in your hand!’

Flying aloft, he soars serenely,
Riding the pure vapour, guiding yin and yang.
Speedily, lord, I will go with you,
Conducting High God to the height of heaven.

My cloud-coat hangs in billowing folds;
My jade girdle-pendants dangle low:
A yin and a yang, a yin and a yang:
None of the common folk know what I am doing.

I have plucked the glistening flower of the Holy Hemp
To give to one who lives far away.
Old age already has crept upon me:
I am no longer near him, fast growing a stranger.

He drives his dragon chariot with thunder of wheels;
High up he rides, careering heavenwards.
But I stand where I am, twisting a spray of cassia:
The longing for him pains my heart.

It pains my heart, but what can I do?
If we only could stay as we were, unchanging!
But all man’s life is fated;
Its meeting and partings not his to arrange.

To the right is ‘The Greater Master of Fate’

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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