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Searching for the Ming: Part One

Zhang Dai
Translated by Duncan Campbell

General Prospectus 西湖總記

The Twined Lakes of the Illustrious Sage 明聖二湖[22]

Once Ma Zhen[23] of the Eastern Han dynasty had created Mirror Lake, it became the lake that earliest acquired a reputation for scenic beauty from the Han dynasty down through the Tang.[24] By the time of the Northern Song dynasty, however, West Lake had started to replace it in people's affections. Everyone now hastened to the shores of this lake, for the understated elegance of Mirror Lake could no longer compete with the flagrant beauty of West Lake. As for Lake Xiang with its bleak and isolated aspect, few were the boats or carts that travelled there, fewer the 'men of taste and learning' who spoke of it.[25]

My cousin Zhang Hong likens West Lake to a famous beauty, Lake Xiang to a hermit and Mirror Lake to an immortal. I disagree. To my mind, Lake Xiang is a nubile virgin, shy and modestly blushing, as if caught sight of on her wedding day. Mirror Lake, by contrast, is the straight-laced daughter of an prominent family, commanding respect with her every glance and one certainly never to be dallied with. West Lake, by contrast however, is a famous courtesan from the Singing Quarters, fair of both voice and visage. She leans against her doorway a meretricious smile playing across her lips. She is available to one and all, and as all may have their way with her, she is at once both the object of desire and the object of scorn.[Fig.2]

Fig.2 West Lake, a prospect 西湖全景_24.jpg reprinted without attribution in Old Photographs of West Lake, p.24.

The Lake is at its busiest during the spring and summer months; in autumn and winter it is all but deserted. It is at its rowdiest on the birthday of the flowers on the Twelfth Day of the Second Month; by the evening of the moon on the Fifteenth of the Eighth Month so few are the visitors that they are like stars scattered in the sky. And again, the lake is at its most crowded on fine and sunny days; in rain or in snow it is desolate. Thus it is, as I have said before, that: 'If for a good reader there is no better way to read than Dong Yu's "Three Remainders", then so too can it be said that for one good at touring there is no better time to tour the lake than these 'Three Remainders'. Dong Yu is quoted as saying: 'Winter is the remainder of the year, evening the remainder of the day, and rainy days the remainder of the season'.[26] Why should ancient flowering plums standing upon snow covered peaks be at all inferior to willows growing tall along mist shrouded embankments, or the moon hanging suspended in the bright firmament be inferior to the delicate beauty of flowers at dawn, or the blur of colour of falling rain be inferior to the shimmer of light under sunny skies?[27] The appreciation of the emotional quality of such scenes is only to be found in the man of understanding'. Of the four worthies of the lake too, I have made the following comment: 'Bo Juyi's untrammelled understanding was certainly not as admirable as Lin Bu's tranquil profundity;[28] Li Bo's liking for the fantastical was nowhere near as worthy as Su Shi's delicately tuned sensibility.' As to the others, such as the improvident Jia Sidao[29] or the profligate Sun Long,[30] although both these men spent several decades living besides the lake and expended millions on its upkeep, there remained aspects of the disposition and piquancy of the lake that they could never even dream of attaining. This being the case, how then could it be possible to begin discussing touring the lake with the frustrated pedants of this present age!

自馬臻開鑒湖，而由漢及唐，得名最早。後至北宋，西湖起而奪之，人皆奔走西湖，而鑒湖之淡遠，自不及西湖之冶艷矣。至於湘湖則僻處蕭然，舟車罕至，故韻士高人無有齒及之者。余弟毅孺常比西湖為美人，湘湖為隱士，鑒湖為神仙。余不謂然。余以湘湖為處子，目氐娗羞澀，猶及見其未嫁之時；而鑒湖為名門閨淑，可欽而不可狎；若西湖則為曲中名妓，聲色俱麗，然倚門獻笑，人人得而媟褻之矣。人人得而媟褻，故人人得而艷羨；人人得而艷羨，故人人得而輕慢。在春夏則熱鬧之至，秋冬則冷落矣；在花朝則喧哄之至，月夕則星散矣；在晴明則萍聚之至，雨雪則寂寥矣。故余嘗謂："善讀書，無過董遇三餘，而善游湖者，亦無過董遇三餘。董遇曰：'冬者，歲之余也；夜者，日之余也；雨者，月之余也。'雪巘古梅，何遜煙堤高柳；夜月空明，何遜朝花綽約；雨色涳濛，何遜晴光灧瀲。深情領略，是在解人。"即湖上四賢，余亦謂："樂天之曠達，固不若和靖之靜深；鄴侯之荒誕，自不若東坡之靈敏也。"其餘如賈似道之豪奢，孫東瀛之華贍，雖在西湖數十年，用錢數十萬，其於西湖之性情、西湖之風味，實有未曾夢見者在也。世間措大，何得易言游湖。

Next | Previous

Searching for the Ming

• Introduction: Search for West Lake in My Dreams 西湖夢尋
• Part One: General Prospectus 西湖總記
• Part Two: Northern Approaches 西湖北路
• Part Three: Western Approaches 西湖西路
• Part Four: Central Approaches 西湖中路
• Part Five: Southern Approaches 西湖南路
• Part Six: Environs 西湖外景

Notes: Part One

[22] Legend has it that during the Han dynasty a golden ox suddenly appeared in the middle of the lake, this having been understood as an auspicious sign of the birth of an illustrious sage. The lake proper is divided into the Inner and the Outer Lakes, hence the name Zhang Dai uses for it here.

[23] Whilst serving as Governor of Guiji in around 140, Ma Zhen had Mirror Lake formed in an attempt to alleviate the problem of the alternative flooding or drought of the surrounding districts.

[24] At this point in the text, Wang Yuqian's 'Eyebrow Commentary' (that is, marginalia) reads: 'When Ma Zhen created Mirror Lake, he certainly didn't have tourism in mind; there is no need whatsoever, then, to compare 800 li of fertile fields with West Lake in terms of their respective scenic beauty!'

[25] On this lake, see R. Keith Schoppa, Song Full of Tears: Nine Centuries of Chinese Life at Xiang Lake, Westview Press, 2002.

[26] Dong Yu's 董遇 comment occurs in the Brief History of the Kingdom of Wei (Wei lüe 魏略), as cited in Pei Songzhi's 裴松之 annotations to 'Biography of Wang Su' (Wang Su zhuan 王肅傳) in the Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo zhi 三國志), for which see Sanguo zhi jijie 三國志集解, Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1982, p.389.

[27] See Su Shi's celebrated poem 'Drinking By the Lake: Clear Sky at First, then Rain' ('Yin hushang chu qing hou yu' 飲湖上初晴後雨), which, in A.C. Graham's translation, reads: 'The shimmer of light on the water is the play of sunny skies,/ The blur of colour across the hills is richer still in rain./ If you wish to compare the lake in the West to the Lady of the West,/ Lightly powdered or thickly smeared the fancy is just as apt', for which, see A.C. Graham, trans., Poems of the West Lake: Translations from the Chinese ,London: Wellsweep, 1990, p.23.

[28] Lin Bu 林逋 (967-1028) was a poet of the Song dynasty who became known as 'The Recluse of Lone Hill'. For a short biography of him (by Wayne Schlepp), see Herbert Franke, ed., Sung Biographies ,Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1976, vol.2, pp.613-15.

[29] Jia Sidao 賈似道 (1213-75), a minister during the Southern Song who earned an invidious reputation for his appeasement policies, for whom see the short biography (by Herbert Franke) in Sung Biographies, vol.1, pp.203-207.

[30] Sun Long 孫隆 (d. 1601) was the eunuch appointed by the Wanli emperor to serve as Superintendent of the Imperial Silk Manufactory of Suzhou and Hangzhou.