290 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

is a famous version of this story in the lyric drama. One
autumn day a warrior went into the mountains to enjoy the
beautiful crimson of dying maple leaves. When he had gone
deep into the forest, he came upon a company of ladies holding
a feast behind brilliant curtains of satin which were drawn
around them. He joined their company and was pleasantly
entertained, especially by the chief of the party, a young noble-
woman. While the warrior was enjoying himself with music
and the rice-beer that the lady provided, the sky suddenly dark-
ened and a furious storm rushed down from the surrounding
mountain peaks. In the midst of the confusion the lady was
transformed into an alarming demon which threatened his life.
The terrified warrior roused himself from the spell under
which he lay and, regaining his composure and his courage,
managed to make his escape from this treacherous spirit. In
this story, the female genius is not given a name 6 but she re-
minds one strongly of Yama-uba.

Yama-uba, “ the Mountain-Woman ” sometimes assumes a
terrifying aspect, but she is generally represented as a hand-
some woman and is said to have married a warrior. Their little
son is called Kintaro or Kintoki. The boy is a genuine child of
nature, sturdy and courageous ; he fears nothing and plays with
wild animals. He may be called the Siegfried of Japanese
folk-lore. He is said to have become a retainer of the famous
warrior Raiko, of whom we shall hear in Chapter VI. 7 In the
lyric drama the boy’s mother is idealized into a fairy, a person-
ification of the clouds and mists, who roams among the moun-
tains and also visits human abodes. This is an extract from the
drama in question.

Chorus

“ Mountain-maid we call her.

But no one knows her birth-place or her fixed abode.

She lives in the clouds and beside all the streams.

There is no place, even among the remotest mountains,

Where traces of her are not found.”


VAMPIRES AND GHOSTLY BEINGS


291


The Maid

“ Although I am not a human being.”

Chorus

“She manifests herself in a wondrous figure of monstrous size,
Formed out of clouds and mists.

And by transforming herself according to her surroundings. . . .
See the willow leaves bursting green from the buds,

And the flowers blooming, beautifully pink,

All by themselves and left to themselves.

Likewise the Mountain-maid ever roams about the world.
Sometimes she consoles the wood-cutter,

By giving him a resting place under a blooming tree,

Along the trails on the slopes of mountains . . .

Again she steps into the window,

Beside which a girl manipulates her weaving loom,

And tenders her help to the toiling hands;

Just as the nightingale singing on the willow tree
Weaves the green threads of the pending branches.”

Chorus

“ In the spring, as the blooming season approaches,”

The Maid

“ I roam about searching for blossoms.”

Chorus

“ In the autumn, when the evening is calm and the air translucent,”

The Maid

“ I migrate from mountain to mountain.

Enjoying the silvery light of the moon.”

Chorus

“ In the winter, when the clouds bring storm and snow,”

The Maid

“ I hover in the flying snow, along the slopes and peaks.”


JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY


292


Chorus

“ She roams endlessly among the clouds of illusion;
And see her figure like the mountains,

Yet changing perpetually.

She hovers around the peaks,

Her voice is echoed from the dales.

The figure close by only a moment ago
Is passing away, moving up and down,

To the right and the left, encircling the summits,
Wandering along the ranges, flying and drifting,
And finally leaving no trace behind.”


CHAPTER V


ROMANTIC STORIES

A LWAYS and everywhere love is a powerful stimulus to
sentiment and imagination. No emotion is so readily
idealized by the human mind, and the literature, oral or written,
of every people is rich in the romantic fictions that deal with
the countless aspects and manifestations of the tender passion.
Every love story, of course, reflects the prevailing sentiment
and the social environment of the time in which it was pro-
duced. Accordingly no story can be called absolutely universal
in its appeal. Yet some are so naive, so simple, and so touching,
that they live on from age to age, always bearing a message to
the human heart. They are filtered, as it were, through the
varying sympathies of generations, and everyone finds some
echo of his own experience in them. The romantic story of this
sort is a product of what Richard Wagner called the rein-
menschlich , and is to be distinguished from tales and novels
that are more intricate in structure and more intense in passion,
but at the same time less direct and less certain in their appeal
to the emotions of the race. Such stories belong to the common
emotional tradition of mankind. We know that the heroes and
heroines are creations of the imagination, yet we cannot escape
the feeling that they have a reality more genuine than that of
many actual men and women. Theirs is an ideal reality; they
are changeless and immortal prototypes of the lovers of every
age and clime.

There were two great epochs in Japanese history favourable
to the production of romantic stories of this special type. In
the ancient days down to the end of the eighth century, the im-


TOI — 20


294 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

agination of the race was still in the primitive and mythopoeic
stage of development. In that epoch nature myths were often
translated into simple and charming tales animated by the mo-
tive of human love. Again between the tenth and twelfth cen-
turies there was an age of romantic sentiment which had its
origin in the peculiar atmosphere of the court life and was stim-
ulated by the Buddhist conception of reality. Later, in the
fifteenth century, there was a revival of this interest in romantic
love, but the movement was not creative as the other two had
been; it only refined and elaborated the materials handed down
from former times.

In the stories of the two epochs which I have mentioned, the
characters are sometimes personifications of natural objects, but
more often they are human beings who represent the sentiments
and ideals of the period. First let us reproduce a story from
the ancient mythological records, which deals with personified
phenomena of nature . 1

There were two brothers, Haru-yama no Kasumi-onoko and
Aki-yama no Shitabi-onoko, i.e. “ the Mist-man of the Spring
Mountain ” and “ the Frost-man of the Autumn Mountain.”
At the same time there lived a beautiful girl named Izushio-
tome, i.e. “ the Grace-maiden,” who was born of the eight di-
vine treasures — the spear, jewels, etc. — brought over by a
Korean prince to Japan. Now, the elder brother, the Frost-
man of Autumn was eager to marry the girl, but she would have
none of his love. He told his younger brother, the Mist-man
of Spring, of his failure and promised to make him a fine pres-
ent if he should succeed in winning the girl. The Mist-man
said that he felt sure of his success, and then asked his mother 2
how he should win the heart of the girl. His mother made for
him robes of the fine tendrils of the wistaria and gave him a bow
and arrows to carry when he visited the maiden. When the
Mist-man arrived at the house of the Grace-maiden, his robes
were purple, and his bow and arrows also were adorned with


ROMANTIC STORIES


295


beautiful wistaria flowers. The girl welcomed the handsome
flower-bedecked youth, married him and had a child by him.

The Mist-man then went to his elder brother, told him of
his success and asked for the promised present. But the Frost-
man was very jealous of his brother and would not fulfil his
promise. So the Mist-man went to the mother and complained
that his brother had deceived him. The mother in turn was
angry with the Frost-man and laid a curse upon him 3 that he
should wither like an uprooted bamboo and fall sick. Accord-
ingly the Frost-man became seriously ill. Yet when he re-
pented of his breach of faith, and prayed for his mother’s par-
don she forgave him 5 he was cured, and all lived together in
harmony.

Another story which also deals with a girl and her two lovers
dates from the eighth century. Although the story seems origi-
nally to have had a natural background, it is told as if it were
an actual episode of human love, and the graves of the three
were often in later years pointed out to sympathizing passers-by.
The story runs thus : 4

There lived in the province of Settsu a girl famous for her
beauty, who was known as the maiden of Unai. Many lovers
wooed her, but she cared for none of them. When all the
others had given up hope, two young men, equally handsome,
remained as undiscouraged suitors. Each vied with the other in
trying to win the girl’s heart by visiting her and making her
costly presents. The parents, ready to see their daughter mar-
ried to one of the young men, but unable to decide between
them, determined that an archery contest should decide the
question. The suitors came on the appointed day, equipped with
bow and arrows. The girl and her parents stood by to watch the
contest, and the suitors were to shoot at a bird that had alighted
on the surface of a river that flowed by the maiden’s house.
They shot, and each arrow hit the bird, one at the head and the
other at the tail. So the matter was still undecided.


296 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

The girl, tormented by the difficulty of choosing between her
lovers, grew despondent and threw herself into the river. The
two lovers thereupon lost all desire for life and followed the
example of their beloved. So the three were joined in death
and they were buried together on the river bank, the maiden in
the middle and a lover on either side.

Before giving examples of the stories produced during the
second romantic epoch, we ought to say something about the pe-
culiar ideals of that interesting time. It was the age of the
“ cloud-gallants ” and the “ flower-maidens,” of the luxurious
nobles and ladies who moved amidst the romantic and artificial
surroundings of the Imperial court. It was an epoch of aes-
theticism and sentimentalism, in which free rein was given to
emotions that were refined and cultivated by the somewhat en-
ervating atmosphere of Miyako, the Imperial capital. Every
member of this picturesque society, man or woman, was a poet,
sensitive to the charms of nature and eager to express every
phase of feeling in verse. Their intimate feeling for nature
and for the varied emotions of the human heart was expressed
in the word aware , which meant both “ pity ” and “ sympathy.”
This sentiment had its source in the tender romanticism of the
age; it owed much, too, to the Buddhist teaching of the oneness
of existences, of the basic unity that joins together different be-
ings, and which persists through the changing incarnations of
one individual. That conviction of the continuity of life, both
in this existence and hereafter, deepened the sentimental note,
and widened the sympathetic reach of aware. It is not strange
that the reign of aware produced many romances of love, both
in actual life and in the stories of the period.

Not only through its metaphysical doctrine of the unity of
existence and of the continuity of karma, but through the ideal
of the “ One Road,” Buddhism impressed on the “ cloud-
gallants ” and the “ flower-maidens ” of that time a sense of
the oneness of life. According to this teaching, beings, whether






-






' • ' • : ' ' • ' ?






' -






















PLATE XXXIII

The Maiden of Unai and Her Lovers
Shooting Birds

See p. 295.

Taken from Settsu Meisho Zu drawn by Yutei
(late 1 8th century).




ROMANTIC STORIES


297

human or animal or even vegetable, are destined finally to at-
tain ideal perfection. The basis is common, the aim is the same,
and the way leading to the perfect enlightenment is one for all
beings, whatever their different dispositions and capacities.
This was the teaching of the “ One Road,” and the Buddhist
scripture which expounded it most fully was the Lotus of
Truth / the Johannine Gospel of Buddhism. The book is full
of similes and parables, apocalyptic visions and stimulating
prophecies, and it gave tremendous impetus to the romantic
sentiment of the age. The greatest romance of this period was
the Genji Monogatari , the stories of the love adventures of
Prince Genji, and the author of that book has embodied the
truths taught in the Lotus with singular felicity and charm in
his graceful narrative.

The stories of Prince Gen ji’s love adventures are not re-
markable for plot or incident, but they are very delightful in
their affectionate association with the beauties of nature. In
other words, the varied characters of the women who figure
in these love affairs are not only illustrated by the circumstances
of love, but by their suggested likeness to certain seasons and
to certain physical surroundings. For instance, the Lady Vio-
let is an intelligent and sprightly woman, whom the prince met
while she was quite a child, and her love affair with him is nar-
rated in a succession of tender episodes and of happy days like
a perpetual spring. On the other hand, the Lady Hollyhock,
the prince’s legitimate wife, is a jealous woman of passionate
temperament} her life runs stormily, tormented by her hus-
band’s waywardness, and she is even attacked by the revengeful
spirit of another jealous woman . 6 These stories, excellently
representative of the sentiment of aware , appealed to the Japa-
nese of the Middle Ages so deeply that they became the classic
models of romantic love tales. They were repeatedly sung in
verse, referred to in other books, embodied in lyric dramas, and
depicted in pictures} and the persons and incidents of the stories


298 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

attained so much reality in the people’s minds that many authors
treated the romances as if they were actual and not fictitious ad-
ventures. The popularity of the stories may be seen from the
fact, that a set of symbols 7 was devised to stand for each chap-
ter of the book, and for its particular persons, circumstances and
instances.

Besides Genji Monogatari there are several books represent-
ing the same ethos and sentiment, and some of the tales attained
a popularity rivalling that of Genji. The scenes where these
stories are laid were often visited, and some persons were said
to have seen the romantic lovers in apparitions, to have con-
versed with them and to have converted their souls, still en-
tangled in the passion of love, to the Buddhist religion. Such
Buddhistic romantic tales are found composed in lyric dramas
since the fourteenth century, and the old romances obtained a
still wider circulation through them. These dramas, called
“ Utai,” are not dramatic, in the modern sense of the word, but
are rather lyrical narratives of the persons who have had such
experiences, recited in a kind of chant to the accompaniment of
orchestra and choral song. In these performances, which are
called “No ”, the characters who appear on the stage are two
or three in number ; they converse in recitative and perform cer-
tain dances. The No are not unlike the Greek tragedies in tech-
nique, but the subjects are sentimental and romantic rather than
tragic. These plays were performed before assemblies of
nobles and warriors, and even today they are patronized by the
educated classes, and the stories they represent are known al-
most universally among the people. Although these stories do
not belong to folk-lore in the proper sense, they may as well be
illustrated here, since they are so characteristic of the people’s
vein of sentiment.

First of all these is the story of Ono-no-Komachi, the ideal-
ized type of female beauty in Japanese literature and folk-lore.
She was a court lady who flourished in the ninth century. Not


ROMANTIC STORIES


299


only did her beauty attract many “ cloud-gallants ” to woo her,
but she was a poetess of high gifts. Having met with ill for-
tune in her love for a certain nobleman, she rejected all other
suitors, left the court, and lived out a long life as a recluse.
Many stories are told about her, but the best known is that of
her appearance to the poet Narihira, who is himself the hero of
many romantic stories, and her conversation in verse with him.

The story ascribes her cruelty toward lovers to her pride in
her own beauty, and asserts that her solitary life in later years
was the just punishment for that pride. The unfortunate
Komachi is often depicted in pictures as a miserable old woman
sitting on a sotoba , a piece of wood erected beside a tomb in
memory of the dead. It is of this Komachi, lonely and for-
gotten, that the poem speaks:

“ The flowers and my love
Passed away under the rain,

While I idly looked upon them!

Where is my yester-love? ” 8

Thus she died 5 no one buried her, and her corpse remained
exposed to the weather. Some years later Narihira, the poet
of love, passed a night at the spot, not knowing that it was there
that Komachi had died. He heard a faint voice among the
bushes, and it repeated a poem complaining of the solitude.
Then Komachi’s apparition disclosed itself, and confessed to
Narihira that she repented of her pride and suffered sadly from
loneliness. On the following morning Narihira discovered a
decayed skull among

We may add another story to illustrate the nature of the
Dragon King as the guardian of Buddhism as well as of the sea
route. In the Middle Ages, many pious priests attempted to go
over to China and further to India, but only a few succeeded in
reaching China and none got as far as India. Now, a monk, be-
ing desirous of visiting the home-land of Buddhism, passed sev-
eral nights at the shrine of Kasuga in praying for the safety of
the journey. One night a Dragon King guarding the Kasuga
shrine appeared to him and persuaded him to abandon the plan,
because the scene of Buddha’s sermon on Vulture Peak could be
shown by him in vision. The priest complied with the counsel
and was shown the vision.

Inferior to the Dragon tribe but, like them, a denizen of the
sea, is Ningyo, the Fisher-woman. 10 Her head is that of a
woman with long hair but her body is that of a fish. This mer-
maid-like creature often appears to human beings in order to
give them advice or warning. Pearls are said to be her tears,
and according to one tale a fisherman who caught her in his net,
but set her free, received her tears as a reward which filled a
casket with pearls. Another belief about her is that a woman
who eats of her flesh gains perpetual youth and beauty, and
stories are told of women who were fortunate enough to have a
taste of that miraculous food.

Another fairy-like being of marine origin is the Shojo;
though he does not actually belong to the sea but is believed to
come across it to Japan. Probably he is an idealized personifi-
cation of the orang-outang which is native neither to China nor
to Japan, though occasional specimens have, in one way or an-


274 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

other, found their way thither. The Shojo is a merry embodi-
ment of Epicureanism, who, deriving his chief pleasure from
perpetual drinking, is therefore regarded as the genius of sake-
beer. His face is red or scarlet and boyish in appearance. His
long red hair hangs down nearly to his feet; he has a dipper
for ladling sake, wears gaudy dresses of red and gold, and
dances a sort of bacchanalian dance.

There are no definite stories about these creatures, but a
group of two or three Shojo is often depicted in pictures or
modelled in little statues; and their characteristic dance is per-
formed to the accompaniment of choral songs which praise
them and the drink they love.

IV. THE TAOIST IMMORTALS

Next let us consider the Sennin, “ the Man of the Moun-
tain,” the ideal man of Taoist mysticism, as he is modified by
the popular imagination of the Japanese. The Sennins are be-
lieved to perform supernatural feats; they can fly through the
air, ejecting their own images from their mouths, walk upon the
waves of the sea, produce a horse from a magic gourd, summon
mysterious animals at will out of vacancy, and so forth. But
the essential thing about them is that they are beyond the effect
of worldly change and commotion and enjoy immortal lives in
blissful serenity and total emancipation from care. They are
ideal recluses who have passed beyond all human limitations
and are in perfect communion with nature; the men in whom
the macrocosmos is embodied and who are therefore the true
“ children of nature.”

They are variously said to have their home amidst some dis-
tant mountains, or in the happy islands, or even in the sky itself,
and their assembly is conceived to be like a meeting of poets or
of “ free talkers.” But the Sennins are pre-eminently indi-
vidualists, and even when they feast together, each of them is


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS 275

sufficient unto himself and finds his enjoyment in himself. This
myth has its source in the long period of unrest in China during
the centuries that followed the fourth. At that time of social
disintegration many talented men retired from the world.
These mysterious recluses came to be idealized by the people,
and in time to be confused with supernatural beings. The idea
of the secluded and meditative life found sympathy in Japan
during the time of confusion in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, and their stories of the Sennins became the popular
fairy-tales of the period.

The best known of the Sennins are Tob 5 -saku, tc the Prime
Man of the East,” and Weiwdbo, “ the Queen Mother of the
West.” The former is an old man who never grows any older,
and who lives somewhere in the East. His immortality is sym-
bolized by a peach which he holds in his hand, and evidently he
represents the ever rejuvenating vitality of the spring. The
Queen Mother lives on a plateau, close to Heaven, far to the
west of China. She is a beautiful lady of eternal youth, sur-
rounded by a court of young fairies and revered by all Sennins
and fairy-like beings as their queen.

Many of the Sennins are associated with the animals or plants
that symbolize their respective qualities. For instance, Rafu-
sen, which probably means “ the Buoyant Subtlety,” is the fe-
male genius of the plum-blossom, the flower beloved by Chi-
nese and Japanese poets as the pioneer of spring and the typical
representative of pure perfume and chaste beauty. Rafu-sen is
supposed to wander among the plum-trees in the night, espe-
cially in the moonlight. Kinko Sennin, “ the High Man with a
Harp,” rides on a pure white crane and plays on his instrument
as he flies through the air. Kiku-jido, “ the Grace-boy of the
Chrysanthemum,” is the genius of that flower. He is an eternal
boy and lives somewhere in the mountains, at a fountain by
which chrysanthemums bloom and from which, by the virtue of
the flowers, a stream flows endowed with wonderful curative


276 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

power. Gama Sennin, or “ the Toad-Master,” has the power
of producing any number of toads and of riding on them
through the sky.

These and many other Chinese Sennins were imported into
Japan where they are more often represented in painting than
celebrated in folk-lore. But Japan also produced its own Sen-
nins. The most conspicuous of them is En-no-Ozuna, known as
Gyoja, or “ the Ascetic Master.” Gyoja is the mythic figure of
a famous ascetic who disciplined himself among mountains in
the eighth century. He is said to have built a rocky bridge
from one mountain to another, by enforcing the service of gods
and spirits, demons and goblins. During this work, the genius
of one of the mountains connected by the bridge refused to
obey Gy oja’s command, because he was so ugly that he hesitated
to appear among the other spirits. Gyoja punished the diso-
bedient spirit by shutting him up in a cave, in which he is con-
fined to this day. This story perhaps refers to that stage in the
religious history of Japan, when the Taoist-Buddhist ideal
was getting the better of the old native beliefs. Further, it is
said that Gyoja was condemned by the government authorities
as a magician, and during his exile he performed a number of
supernatural feats. This typical Japanese Sennin still exerts a
certain spell over the popular imagination, and his image is to
be seen in many a cave, seated on a chair with a staff in his hand.

According to the usual belief, however, the Sennins are in
danger of losing their supernatural powers if they are tempted
to yield to human passions, as was Ikkaku Sennin, “ the One-
horned.” 11 He passed through a long training and gained the
power of performing miracles. He was once engaged in strife
with the Dragon tribe and confined them all within a cave. As
a result no rain fell — because rain is controlled by the Dragons
— and the whole land suffered from a disastrous drought.

Now the king of the land, Benares, learned the cause of the
calamity, and contrived a stratagem to tempt the powerful Sen-



! i. !' . . •- ?- -

?

n •’ v , . i








PLATES XIX, XX, XXI


A Group of Three Pictures Representing the
Realm of the Taoist Immortals (Sennin)

A lady Immortal riding on the mythical peacock,

howo.

A palace standing on high terraces and command-
ing a wide view of mountains and waters, where the
Immortals are gathering.

A male Immortal, called Kinko Sennin, riding on
a Chinese dragon, the symbol of infinity. See pp.
274 ff.

By Kano Seishin ( 1 8th century?). In possession
of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.







PLATE XXII


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS 277

nin and thus to set free the Dragons. To that end the king sent
the most beautiful of his court ladies to the mountain where the
One-horned was living. The Sennin was so much charmed by
the lady’s beauty that he consented to drink the wine she offered
him. As the Sennin became intoxicated his powers departed
from him and the dragons were able to break out from their
confinement. The Sennin aroused himself and tried to fight his
enemies. But it was too late. The dragons escaped into the
sky and the rain poured down in torrents. So the king’s plot
succeeded and the land was refreshed.

Another well known example of a fallen Sennin is that of
Kume-no-Sennin. He lived as an ascetic among the mountains
near Kume-dera, a Buddhist temple, and attained the remark-
able power of feeding on air and flying in the sky. One day,
when he was enjoying himself in the air, he saw beneath him a
woman who washed clothes by the river side. His attention was
attracted by the white feet of the woman gleaming in the
water. He yielded to the allurement and thereby lost his super-
natural power. He fell to the earth, fortunately unhurt, but he
never regained his miraculous gifts. He is said to have married
the woman and left posterity. His fate is always quoted as a
typical instance of downfall from on high 5 but the story seems
also to be one of that numerous class which deals with a mar-
riage between a heavenly being and a human being. 12

Not only are stories of Sennins widely popular in Japan, but
belief in these supernatural beings is to a certain extent still a
living force among the people. Candidates for Sennin-ship
feed themselves on dry vegetable food and avoid any cooked
food; they go to and fro among the mountains, they bathe often
in cold water and seldom sleep under roofs. They hope for
the immortality of the bodily life and they believe themselves
to have certain supernormal powers. One of them was sure that
he saw purple clouds coming down from Heaven ready to re-
ceive him if he should jump from a lofty cliff. He dared to


vm — 19


278 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

perform the feat, but his assurance proved to be a delusion and
he was killed. Yet these miracle-mongers are often revered by
the common people and stories about them are in very frequent
circulation.

The Men of the Mountain, self-sufficient as they were, had
their own society. Their meetings were often pictorially repre-
sented. (Plates XX and XXI.) These were supposed to oc-
cur in an ideal region called Senkyo, the realm of the Sennins, a
region among the mountains where pine-trees symbolic of lon-
gevity grow soaring to the heavens, and where terraces com-
mand wide views that correspond to the free and spacious minds
of the Sennins. There they exchange opinions, compose poems,
play music or engage in meditation. This ideal realm was the
paradise of the Taoists, but unlike the Buddhist paradise, it is
not a shining or resplendent world. It is only an ideally beauti-
ful spot inhabited by those immortals, who form a community
of their own, but are not so well organized and united as those
who dwell in the Buddhist paradises.

The Senkyo was often depicted in pictures which in turn stim-
ulated poetic imagination in the Japanese to dreams of ideal
serenity and aloofness, of total emancipation from all worldly
anxieties, of immortal felicity and of freedom from illness and
death. Many Japanese Buddhists, who were much imbued
with Taoist doctrines, attempted to copy the ideal life of the
immortals. They imitated the gathering of the immortals in
the tea-party of a peculiarly quiet and contemplative type, or
in meetings for free conversation and rhyming competition, and
they planned their abodes and gardens in imitation of the ideal
Senkyo. 13 In short, the conception of the Senkyo was a source
of real inspiration to the folk-lore and the aestheticism of the
Japanese.

It was in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that the Chi-
nese ideas of the Sennin and the Senkyo found widest circula-
tion in Japan and became assimilated with the popular beliefs


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS 279

of the Japanese. That period was an age of eclecticism, and
just as the Buddhists readily absorbed the Taoist ideals of life,
so the Shintoists no longer clearly distinguished their own ideas
and traditions from Buddhist conceptions. This tendency re-
sulted in the establishment of a group of deities, or immortals,
who were regarded as the patron genii of fortune and longevity,
and were taken from all available sources. The group under-
went several changes, but toward the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury it fell into a definite arrangement and became known as
the “Seven Deities of Good Fortune” (Shichi Fukujin).
These deities are:

1. Ebisu, originally the miscarried son of the primeval de-
ities, who was like a jelly fish, 14 is modified to a merry patron
of good fortune. He has a round white face with a perpetual
smile. In his right hand he carries a fishing-rod with which he
catches the sea-bream, the fish that is regarded as symbolic of
good luck.

2. Daikoku, “ the Great Black Deity,” who was a modifica-
tion of the Hindu Maha-kala, 15 was combined with the Japa-
nese O-kuni-nushi, “ the Great-Land-Master,” whose name,
written in Chinese ideograms, was pronounced like Daikoku.
This deity is represented as a dark-skinned, stout man with a
smiling face. He bears a bag on his shoulder and a mallet in
his right hand. He stands on two rice bags, which, together
with the bag on his shoulder, symbolize an inexhaustible source
of wealth, and the mallet is also believed to produce anything
wished for by his worshippers. The rat is the animal associated
with Daikoku.

3. Bishamon, the Buddhist Vaisravana, is the guardian of
the north, who subjugates the devils and protects the righteous.
In popular thought he is the giver of wealth, and the Buddhist
shrine in his right hand is supposed to contain money. He is
associated in pictures and folk-lore with the centipede.

4. Benten, whom we have seen as a fairy, is the only female


280 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

figure in the group; she is regarded as the patron of female
beauty as well as of wealth. Her messenger is the white ser-
pent.

5. Fuku-roku-ju, or “the genius of Fortune-Wealth-Lon-
gevity,” is a Chinese figure said to have been once a Taoist sage.
He is also spoken of as an incarnation of the southern pole stars.
He has a singularly long head, which is believed to be emblem-
atic of all that he gives to mankind. He is always accompanied
by the white crane, symbolic of longevity.

6. Ju-rojin, “ the Aged Man of Longevity,” is also a Taoist
immortal and a patron of long life. A dark-brown deer is his
animal and he wanders among the trees and grasses, which are
symbolic of health and long life.

7. Hotei, the lover of children, is a fat monk who is believed
originally to have lived in China. He is an embodiment of
cheerfulness, and is always playing with children, whom he
sometimes takes about in the bag which he carries. His bag is
also said to contain many treasures which he bestows on those
who never worry about the troubles of this life.

In this group of deities, or immortals, we have a combination
of mythical figures of Hindu, Chinese, and Japanese origin
which have been a good deal vulgarized by the popular desire
for riches and good fortune. These deities have their worship-
pers, but they are not always treated with respect. They are
often made the subjects of comic representations, pictorial or
theatrical, and are favourite themes for folk-song. The Japan-
ese genius for cheerfulness and merry-making has made pos-
sible the curiously contradictory aspects in which the seven de-
ities appear both in art and literature.















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PLATES XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI


UzUME AND THE SEVEN DEITIES OF GOOD
Fortune

Uzume is the goddess, or female genius, of cheer-
fulness, famous as the one who danced before the
Heavenly Cave and induced the Sun-goddess to come
out. Here she is made companion of the seven Deities
of good fortune, who are arrayed in the picture from
left to right as follows: — Uzume, Ebisu, Benten,
Ju-rojin, Daikoku, Fuku-roku-ju, Hotei and Bisha-
mon. The whole company is represented at a merry
banquet. See p. 279.

By Kazan, also known as Toshu (early 19th
century). In possession of Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston.

The Seven Deities of Good Fortune in
Landscapes

Daikoku sitting in a cottage filled with rice, and
Hotei treading a foot-path with two children.

Ebisu fishing in a boat and Bishamon appearing on
a cloud close to a waterfall.

Fuku-roku-ju flying on a crane, Ju-rojin sitting in
a pavilion, and Benten playing music on the water-
side, where a dragon appears. See p. 279.

The whole group is depicted in a faint echo of the
classic style of the Kano Academy and adapted to the
popular taste of the age.

By Kano Yosen, also known as Korenobu (died
1808). In possession of Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston.






CHAPTER IV


DEMONS, VAMPIRES AND OTHER
GHOSTLY BEINGS

T HE Japanese adopted the Buddhist angels and the Taoist
immortals with very little modification ; but it was other-
wise with the demons and other ghostly beings that were taken
over from Hindu or Chinese sources, and it is often extremely
difficult to trace the identity of such conceptions. It is a fact,
however, that the evil spirits of the ancient native mythology
are vague and shadowy objects, hardly more than names. 1 Al-
most all the demons or ghostly beings in Japanese folk-lore are
of foreign origin, though Japanese imagination has shaped
them into forms quite unlike those which they wore in other
lands.

Creatures of this sort may be divided into three classes,
though the lines between the classes are in many cases obscure.
They are:

i. Ghosts, pure and simple, which are deteriorated forms of
wandering human souls.

2. Demons, beings of infernal origin, created to chastise the
wicked, but often busy in pure mischief and then almost comic
in character.

3. Aerial vampires, called Tengu, and similar furious spirits
that rage in the air.

It may be expedient at this point to say something more con-
cerning the Buddhist doctrine about the transmigration of the
soul. Besides the four superior stages on the way to Buddha-
hood, there are various classes of inferior unperfected spirits.
The highest of them inhabit the heavens (Deva). Of these

254 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

but in another legend two pine-trees are likened to an old couple
and represent conjugal fidelity, i.e. the famous trees of Taka-
sago, of which we shall speak in a later chapter.

On the sea coast, where the wind blows constantly from one
point of the compass, there are often trees whose branches ex-
tend only in one direction. Nearly every one of those trees has
a story of its own which tells the reason why the branches seem
to yearn toward some object in the direction toward which they
point. This is a typical one:

In Tango, upon a long, sandy beach, there is such a pine-tree,
the branches of which extend toward Miyako, the capital. The
daughter of a nobleman in Miyako was stolen by a kidnapper,
as often happened in the middle ages. She was taken to Tango
and sold to a local chief. She often stood under this tree gazing
toward her home and weeping for her parents. The tree felt
sympathy for the poor girl and gradually turned all its branches
in the direction of her home.

Rocks furnish similar motives to the myth makers. The most
famous one is the standing rock of Matsura, on the western
coast of Kyushu, whence ships used to embark for China. Once
when a court noble was despatched to China, his wife Sayo-
hime accompanied him to Matsura, watched the ship that car-
ried her husband vanish beyond the horizon, and stood there,
waving her scarf in farewell, until her figure was metamor-
phosed into the rock, which stands there today and is known as
the rock of Sayo-hime. A curious projection of the rock is said
to be the hand with which she waved him good-bye.

Climatic conditions furnish useful material for local legends.
This is one of the stories concerning the periodical storms that
visit Japan in autumn. It is the story of the “ Hira hurricane,”
Hira being the name of the mountain range that soars above
the western shore of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan.

Once upon a time there lived a fine young man, the keeper of
a lighthouse on a promontory on the eastern side of Lake Biwa.


LOCAL LEGENDS — COMMUNAL CULTS 255

A fair maiden lived in a village across the lake from the light-
house. Once the girl visited the promontory and saw the light-
house keeper. They fell in love and agreed to meet by night,
when no one should know of it. So the maiden used to visit the
beloved every night, crossing the lake in a small boat. Whether
on a calm night the ripples reflected the moon’s light, or whether
in darkness the lake was rough and angry, the girl’s boat never
failed to reach the promontory, because the twinkling light
guided her safely to her beloved.

The summer passed in this way and the autumn came. The
young man had been made happy by the loving girl’s faithful-
ness j but at last her audacity, and her indifference to the danger
of discovery or of death by drowning, so unusual in a young
girl, aroused in the heart of the young man something like sus-
picion. He began to question whether the girl was really a hu-
man being or whether she was a dragon-girl or an ogre. At last
he determined to see whether she could find her way to him
without the guiding light, and so one night he extinguished the
light in his lighthouse. The girl, as usual, had set out in her
boat, but when the light went out she quickly lost her way. She
rowed about helplessly, quite uncertain where she was. She be-
came desperate, and made up her mind that her lover was faith-
less. In her grief and terror she cursed him, herself and the
world. Finally she leaped into the water, with the prayer that
a storm might destroy the lighthouse. No sooner had the girl’s
body disappeared in the water, than the wind rose and soon be-
gan to blow to a hurricane. The storm raged all night. When
morning dawned, the lighthouse, together with its keeper, had
disappeared, for the waters had swallowed it up.

Hence, every year, on that very day, a certain day in the
eighth lunar month, a storm rages over the lake. It blows from
the range of the Hira Mountains, where the unfortunate girl
once lived, and therefore it is called the Hira hurricane.


CHAPTER III


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS,

THE MEN OF THE MOUNTAIN.

I. THE SOURCES OF FAIRY TALES

T HE Japanese people always believed in the existence and
activity of spirits, both of natural objects and of the dead;
yet curiously enough, their mythology, as handed down in
Shinto tradition, is poorly supplied with fantastic beings and is
quite vague in giving personality to its deities. Many of the
deities are hardly more than names, others are worshipped as
the ancestors of the various clans, and the stories about them are
taken by the people as facts rather than as bits of poetic imagina-
tion. That is chiefly because the early Shinto records were com-
piled, as we have said, in the form of historical narrative, their
authors desiring to produce something that should rival Chinese
history in antiquity and supposed authenticity. What we recog-
nize today as myths were originally made to appear as historical
facts, just as the official history of China had carefully turned
the racial legends of that people into alleged chronicles of pure
fact. The pseudo-rationalism of the Shinto records is largely a
product of Chinese, that is, of Confucian, influence.

It must not, however, be supposed that the Japanese were in-
capable of imagining the existence of fairies and other fantastic
beings. We shall find many traces of fairies and similar beings
in the ancient traditions of the Japanese, and there is a very con-
siderable store of fairy stories in the literature and oral tradi-
tions of the people. The greater part of this sort of fiction
seems to have been derived from Chinese and Indian sources,


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS 257

and the Japanese genius is more often shown in the skilful adap-
tation of such stories to local conditions than in original in-
vention. The strain of Hindu ideas and stories came, of
course, through the channel of Buddhist literature, which
derived in turn from the highly refined Vedic and Sanskrit
literature. It reached Japan chiefly through Chinese trans-
lations.

The Chinese stories were mostly derived from non-Confucian
sources, chiefly from the Taoist literature. In a strictly histori-
cal study of Japanese fairy tales, it would be necessary to dis-
tinguish critically these two elements of continental origin from
the smaller stock of native lore. But in this work we shall con-
fine ourselves to setting down some of the stories as they are
commonly circulated among the people, without considering
their sources or the changes they have undergone during the
process of adoption.

II. THE FAIRY-MAIDEN

A fairy who is quite indigenous to Japan is Ko-no-hana-
sakuya-hime, “ the Lady-who-causes-trees-to-bloom.” To her
we have already referred in speaking of the myths of origins.
She is the fairy of cherry-blossoms, and is represented as hover-
ing in the sky and making the cherry-trees bloom, probably by
breathing on them. Her marriage with the grandchild of the
Sun-goddess may be regarded as an instance of the marriage of
a celestial maiden to a human being.

But a more typical example of such a union is offered in the
story of the Swan-maiden. This maiden has no personal name 5
she is conceived to be a celestial maiden furnished with feathers
or wearing a robe of feathers. The most highly idealized ver-
sion of the story is “ The Robe of Feathers ” in one of the No
dramas. In brief it is as follows:

Once, on a fair day, a number of fairy maidens came down


258 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

to earth and bathed in a fountain, hanging their feathery robes
on trees near the pool. A man passed by the place and seeing
the beautiful garments took one of them down from its tree.
The maidens in alarm at the intrusion flew off to the sky; but
the maiden whose robe had been taken, could not fly away with
her companions but had to remain on earth and marry the man. 1
She gave birth to a child, and then having, by stratagem, recov-
ered her feathery robe, she flew back to Heaven.

The story is a version of the tale of the Swan-maiden so well
known in the folk-lore of various nations, though there is no
proof that the Japanese story was borrowed from any other peo-
ple. But in its idealized version in the No drama the maiden
is represented as one of the fairies in attendance on the heavenly
princes who reside in the Moon palace, an idea clearly taken
from a Buddhist story of the moon. Moreover, in this version
the maiden preserves her virginity intact, and the chief motive
of the tale is the contrast between the noble purity of the celes-
tial maiden and the greed of mankind. The story is as fol-
lows: 2

It was a beautiful spring day. A celestial maiden came down
to the pine forest of Hiho, a sandy beach on the Pacific coast
whence there is a grand view of Mount Fuji soaring into the
sky on the other side of the water. The maiden was charmed
by the beauty of the place and forgot her heavenly home. A
fisherman happened to pass by; he perceived a miraculous scent
which perfumed the air, and saw a wonderful robe of feathers
hanging on a pine-tree. While the fisherman was examining
the robe and wondering what it was, the fairy appeared to him
and told him that it was hers — the robe of feathers which was
a property of all the heavenly maidens. The greed of the man
was aroused and he rudely refused to return the robe. The
maiden lamented her loss and finally persuaded the fisherman
to return the robe by dancing before him one of the celestial
dances. The scene is described as follows:


259


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS

(Fairy’s lamentation)

Fairy

“ Vainly my glance doth seek the heav’nly plain.
Where rising vapours all the air enshroud,

And veil the well-known paths from cloud to cloud.”


Chorus


“ Clouds! wand’ring clouds! she yearns, and yearns in vain.
Soaring like you to tread the heav’ns again;

Vainly she sighs to hear, as erst she heard,

The melting strains of Paradise’ sweet bird:

That blessed voice grows faint. The heav’n in vain
Rings with the song of the returning crane;

In vain she lists, where ocean softly laves,

To the free seagull twitt’ring o’er the waves;

Vainly she harks where zephyr sweeps the plain;

These all may fly, but she’ll ne’er fly again! ”


(Fairy’s dance)


Fairy


“ And in this firmament a palace stands
Yclept the moon, built up by magic hands; ”


Chorus

“ And o’er this palace thirty monarchs rule,

Of whom fifteen, until the moon be full.

Nightly do enter, clad in robes of white;

But who again, from the full sixteenth night,

One ev’ry night must vanish into space,

And fifty black-rob’d monarchs take their place.
While, ever circling round each happy king,
Attendant fays celestial music sing.”


Fairy

“ And one of these am I.”


Chorus

“ From those bright spheres
Lent for a moment, this sweet maid appears:


260 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

Here in Japan she lights (heav’n left behind)

To teach the art of dancing to mankind.

E’en when the feath’ry shock

Of fairies flitting past with silv’ry pinions

Shall wear away the granite rock!

Oh, magic strains that fill our ravished ears!

The fairy sings, and from the cloudy spheres,

Chiming in unison, the angels’ lutes,

Tabrets and cymbals and silv’ry flutes,

“ Ring through the heav’n that glows with purple hues,
As when Someiro’s western slope endues
The tints of sunset, while the azure wave
From isle to isle the pine-clad shores doth lave,

From Ukishima’s slope, — a beauteous storm, —
Whirl down the flow’rs; and still that magic form,
Those snowy pinions, fluttering in the light,

Ravish our souls with wonder and delight.”

Fairy

“ Hail to the kings that o’er the moon hold sway!

Heav’n is their home, and Buddhas, too, are they.”

Chorus

“ The fairy robes the maiden’s limbs endue ”

Fairy

“ Are, like the very heav’ns, of tend’rest blue: ”

Chorus

“ Or, like the mists of spring, all silv’ry white,

Fragrant and fair, — too fair for mortal sight!

Dance on, sweet maiden, through the happy hours!
Dance on, sweet maiden, while the magic flow’rs
Crowning thy tresses flutter in the wind
Raised by thy waving pinions intertwin’d!

Dance on, for ne’er to mortal dance ’tis given
To vie with that sweet dance thou bring’st from heav’n
And when, cloud-soaring, thou shalt all too soon
Homeward return to the full-shining moon
Then hear our pray’rs, and from thy bounteous hand
Pour sev’nfold treasures on our happy land;



PLATE XVIII


The Fairies of the Cherry Blossoms Playing
Music in Unison with the Koto Played by
the Emperor Temmu

The costume of the sitting Emperor is not of the
7th century but of the 10th century. The fairies are
depicted in the attire of Buddhist angels (Tennin).
See p. 261.

Taken from Y amato Meisho Zu.







26 i


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS

Bless ev’ry coast, refresh each panting field,

That earth may still her proper increase yield!

But ah, the hour, the hour of parting rings!

Caught by the breeze, the fairy’s magic wings
Heav’nward do bear her from the pine-clad shore,

“ Past Ukishima’s widely-stretching moor,

Past Ashitaka’s heights, and where are spread
The eternal snows on Fujiyama’s head, —

Higher and higher to the azure skies,

Till wand’ring vapours hide her from our eyes! ”

The “ Azuma dance,” as it is called, is supposed to have its
origin in the dance of this fairy on the beach of Miho, and in
like manner the “ Goset ” or u Five Tact dance ” is ascribed to
the fairies of the cherry-blossoms. When the Emperor Tem-
mu, who reigned in the seventh century, was playing on the
Koto in the palace of Yoshino, the place of cherry-blossoms,
five fairies appeared in the sky, playing on their instruments in
harmony with the royal musician, and danced before him the
dance of five tacts. Thereafter, the music and the dance be-
came one of the festivities regularly observed after each Im-
perial coronation. In the No drama, the chorus describes the
scene in these words:

“ O what a wonder!

Music is heard in the sky,

Miraculous perfumes fill the air,

Petals fall from heaven like rain drops!

Are these not signs of a peaceful reign?

Hearken! sweet beyond all imagination
Sound and resound in unison
Harps and guitars, flutes and horns,

Bells and drums, of all kinds;

A grand orchestra makes harmonious the serene air, —

The soothing breeze of the spring.

To the accompaniment of heavenly music
Celestial maidens dance, hovering in the air,

Fluttering their sleeves of feathers,

Flying and wavering among the cherry-blossoms.”
vm — 18


262 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

Another story in which a fairy maiden descends to the earth
is that of “ the Lady of Brilliancy ” (Kaguya-hime). One of
the versions is as follows:

Once upon a time an old man lived in the province of Suruga,
where is Mount Fuji. He cultivated bamboo-trees. One
spring two nightingales made their nest in his bamboo grove,
and there he found a charming little infant who called herself
Kaguya-hime. The old man took the child and nursed her with
great affection. When she grew up she was the most beautiful
girl in the country. She was called to the Imperial residence
and was made Princess-consort of the Emperor. Seven years
passed after the marriage and one day the Princess said to her
husband: “ I am not like you a human being, yet a certain tie has
held me to you. Now my time on earth is ending and I must
return to my celestial home. I am sorry to leave you, but I
must. In memory of me keep this mirror, in which you may see
my image.”

With these words she disappeared from his sight. The Em-
peror missed his beautiful consort so much that he determined
to follow her to Heaven. Accordingly he climbed to the sum-
mit of Fuji, the highest mountain in the country, carrying the
mirror in his hands. Yet when he had reached the summit he
could find no trace of the lost maiden, nor could he by any
means ascend further toward Heaven. His passion was so
strong that a flame burst out of his breast 3 and set the mirror
ablaze. The smoke drifted up into the sky, and from that day
it continually arises from the summit of Fuji.

Another version of this story is known as “ The Bamboo-
hewer.” According to this version the old man found the tiny
girl within a bamboo stem, and when she grew up many men
sought her in marriage. She asked her suitors to achieve some-
thing difficult and promised to marry the one who should best
accomplish the task assigned to him. Five suitors agreed to sub-
mit to the test and each was bidden to bring a certain precious


FAIRIES, CELESTIAL BEINGS 263

thing to the lady. The suitors did their best, but they all failed.
Accordingly each man invented a clever falsehood to account
for his want of success. But the maiden saw through their
stories and rejected them all. So far the story is didactic and
satirical.

Now the ruling Emperor, hearing of the girl’s beauty, wished
her to come to his palace, but she would not, though she sent
him letters and poems. The Emperor found some consolation
in reading these communications, but suddenly he learned that
the maiden was of heavenly origin and was going back to her
father’s palace in the moon, on the night of the full moon in
mid-autumn. The Emperor, wishing to keep the maiden on
earth, sent an army of troops and ordered them to guard her
house. The night came, a bank of white clouds appeared in the
sky and the troops found themselves unable to shoot or to fight
because their arms and legs were paralyzed. So the maiden
was brought home by her father, the Moon King. She left a
casket of medicines and a letter to the Emperor. After the
maiden’s disappearance, the Emperor sent his men with the
casket to the summit of Fuji. There they burnt the medicines
and hence arises the smoke of the volcano.

Not only do celestial maidens descend to earth and wed hu-
man beings in Japanese folk-lore, but a maiden of the deep sea
realms sometimes becomes the wife of a mortal, though when
such marriages occur, according to the tales, the man usually
descends to her abode. Universally, however, the fairy and her
mortal lover are destined to an early separation. These stories
of the sea-maidens are not merely romantic love tales ; they are
largely occupied with the description of a world beneath the
ocean or far beyond the sea. The separation of the married
couple is the result of the yearning of the being, who has left
his or her true element, for the old home. When the maiden
descends from Heaven, her return is due to the expiration of her
alloted term on earth, while, when a human husband has gone

The reference to tana-bata y therefore, was not to an integral


236 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

part of Japanese mythology, but a figurative allusion which all
Japanese would understand and appreciate. Yet the story and
the celebration were so completely naturalized that a purely
Japanese word was used for them.

The interest that the Japanese poets take in the story is illus-
trated by a poem of the eighth century, which we reproduce
here from Miss Walsh’s Master Singers of Japan : 20

“ The shining flood of Heaven’s River gleams,

A scarf of silver flung on utmost blue.

And on the shore whereby its radiance streams,

The lonely Herdsman feels his grief anew.

“ Since those far days when all the world was young,

For the Weaver-maid his longing soul has pined,

And gazing on that flood his heart is wrung
With burning love-thought, passion undefined.

“ Fain would he cross in fair, red-painted barque,

Furnished with trusty oars begemmed with spray.

To cleave the flood with level keel at dark.

Or with calm tides to cross at break of day.

“ So stands the lover by those waters wide,

Gazing all-piteous at the arching sky,

So stands he by the far-flung shining tide,

Gazing with many a heart-despairing sigh.

“ And waves her scarf, with which the wild winds play,

His arms outstretched, his soul with love afire,

While still the lagging Autumn makes delay.

Nor swift wings bridge the path to his desire! ”

The celebration of this festival is today universal} it is mostly
observed by girls and women. They set up bamboos and hang
pieces of variegated paper from the branches; they write poems
on these papers in praise of the two stars, or else prayers ad-
dressed to them asking for their sympathy in love affairs.
They tie variegated yarns to the bamboos, as offerings to the
Weaver-maid, supposed to symbolize the unending longing of
love. Besides other offerings the women pour water into a pan









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PLATE X


The Star Festival of Tana-bata

Notice the two star constellations in the sky and
the hanks of yarn, puddings, wine, etc., offered to
them. The offerings are arrayed on a large table
placed in a garden. Koto , the Japanese harp, is on
the table, and it is played in honour of the star lovers.
See pp. 235 ff.

From Y amato Bunko , an illustrated description of
Japanese festivals and customs, printed in the 18th
century.




COSMOLOGICAL MYTHS


237


and dip in it the leaves of the kaji- tree, looking the while at the
reflections of the twinkling stars in the water. They believe
that they find omens in the appearance of the water and of the
leaves. (Plate X.)

V. THE BELIEFS CONCERNING THE SOUL

In spite of the prevalent animistic belief, not much is said
about the soul in the ancient Shinto records. The soul is con-
ceived to be something like a ball, as its appellation tama-shii ,
probably “ ball-wind,” indicates. It is composed of two in-
gredients or functions, one mild, refined and happy, and the
other rough, unruly and vigorous. 21 The former remains al-
ways with the body, but the latter can leave it and work beyond
the ken of the person to whom it belongs. It is said that the
Great-Land-Master once saw, to his amazement, his own
“ rough soul ” coming from the sea, and that this soul was the
chief agent of his achievements. But it is uncertain whether all
persons were believed to possess the double soul or only men
of special power and ability. However that may be, the soul
is an existence more or less beyond the confines of the body;
but it is again uncertain whether the soul after the death of the
body necessarily goes to one of the future abodes.

As for the future abodes, we have already heard of the
Land of Gloom 5 its antithesis is the Plain of High Heaven,
where the celestial gods reign. But even more widespread than
the belief in these places was the belief that the soul, after
death, sojourned for an indefinite time close to the abode of
human beings.

The ancient beliefs about the soul, however, were vague and
unimportant, and it is chiefly under Chinese and Buddhist
influence, especially under the latter, that the Japanese came
to define and elaborate their ideas of the soul and of its future
destination. Let us see what these ideas were.


238 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

The Chinese conception of the soul is based upon the physical
theory of the two principles, Yin and Yang. According to them
the soul is composed of two factors, one closely related to gross
matter, and the other subtle and aerial. The destinies of
these two factors were determined partly by the nature of the
person to whom they belonged, and partly by the place of
burial. But these ideas did not influence Japanese folk-lore so
much as the elaborate teachings of Buddhism on the matter of
transmigration.

Properly speaking, Buddhism denied a permanent resting-
place to the soul and taught a perpetual process of change in a
man’s moral character. This continuity, the serial and col-
lateral continuity of karma, as we have said before, stood for
the soul in the common belief, and the destiny of the soul was
held to be its transmigration from realm to realm, from the
heavenly world to the nethermost hell. 22 Buddhist mythology
is full of minute details about the pilgrimage of the soul to and
from these realms, and the ghosts of those who wavered un-
certainly between them were thought sometimes to appear to
men. One of the most popular tales about the wanderings of
the soul says that there is a river, on the bank of which the soul
could decide whither it would go. The stream was called
Sanzu-no-Kawa, “ the River of the Three Routes,” because the
ways departed thence in three directions, one toward the hells,
the second toward the beast life, and the third toward the realm
of the “ hungry ghosts ” (Sanskrit Preta). On these three
roads there were various posts at which the soul was examined
by the judges, the Plutos of Buddhism ; and finally there was
the dreadful king-judge, Emma (Sanskrit Yama-raja), in the
hells, who gave sentence of punishment according to the sinful-
ness of the souls that came before him. These scenes were
often depicted in pictures like the graphic representations of
the Last Judgment and the pains of hell painted by artists of
mediaeval Europe.


COSMOLOGICAL MYTHS


239

But the ghost that played the greatest part in folk-lore was
one which was neither good enough to go to the heavenly
world nor bad enough to be doomed to eternal punishment.
A soul of this kind, one which was in u chu-u ” i.e. the inter-
mediate stages, appeared in ghostly apparitions, somewhat like
a human figure but devoid of legs and ghastly in its pallor. A
ghost appears to those survivors, with whom in life it had some
connection, whether of love or of hatred, for it is attracted to
such persons either by attachment or by the desire for revenge.
These apparitions are frequent in folk-lore, but are so much
like one another that there is little need to describe them by
means of separate stories.

There is a pretty but melancholy story of the chu-u existence
which deals with the souls of dead children. Their abode is a
desolate river-basin with gravel and sand, called Sai-no-kawara,
“ the River-basin of Offering.” To quote from the hymn
dedicated to Jizo, the protector of the children : 23

“ In the pale grey Land of Meido (‘ the Realm of Gloom ’),

At the foot of Shide ( £ Wandering after Death ’) Mountain,
From the River of Souls’ dry bed
Rise the murmurs of voices,

The prattle of baby-voices,

The pitiful accents of early childhood.”

Here the souls of dead infants, deprived of their parents’ affec-
tionate care, wander without prospect, long for their relatives,
yet do not forget to play among themselves. They heap stones
and gravel in the shape of a Buddhist pagoda, and while they
play they sing in pretty childish voices:

“ Building the first Tower, and praying
The gods to shower blessings on Father;

Piling the second, imploring

The gods to shower blessings on Mother;

Heaping the third Tower, and pleading
For Brother and Sister, and dear ones.”


240


JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

Then come cruel devils who destroy the little towers and drive
away the innocent souls of the children. But the compassionate
god Jizo comes to the rescue, the rings jingling at the tip of
his pilgrim’s staff. He steps on the sandy river-bed, and
wherever he steps lotus flowers grow. He drives away the
demons and consoles the terrified children:

“ Be not afraid, little dear ones,

You were so little to come here,

All the long journey to Meido!

I will be Father and Mother,

Father and Mother and Playmate
To all children in Meido!

“ Then he caresses them kindly.

Folding his shining robes round them,

Lifting the smallest and frailest

Into his bosom, and holding

His staff for the stumblers to clutch.

“To his long sleeves cling the infants,

Smile in response to his smiling,

Glad in his beauteous compassion.”


VI. THE BUDDHIST PARADISE AND THE
GUARDIANS OF THE WORLD

We shall have more to say of the Buddhist theory or mythol-
ogy of transmigration, especially with reference to the inferior
births, in connection with Japanese folk-lore. At present we
shall speak of the Buddhist paradise as distinguished from the
heavenly worlds, because the latter are a result of transmigra-
tion and are subject to decay, while paradise stands unchanged
beyond them all.

Buddhist mythology taught that there were numerous
“ realms of Buddhas,” 24 paradises, so to speak, furnished by
various Buddhas to receive their respective believers. These


S' " ' -

-


>

nt'- :











PLATES XI, XII, XIII, XIV
A Ghost

This is an apparition of a female ghost, with a
phosphorescent flame, and represents a soul tormented
by hatred or jealousy. The Japanese ghost is usu-
ally understood to be void of feet, but here a foot is
faintly depicted. The artist Okyo founded a real-
istic school and his works are famous for their faith-
fulness to nature. See p. 239.

By Maruyama Okyo (dated 1779). Original in
possession of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Genii of the World Beyond

Shozu-ga no Baba (the guardian of the cross-roads
on the journey of the soul). Every soul transmi-
grating to the various resorts beyond has to pay a
tribute to the old woman sitting at the cross-roads
where the three ways of transmigration begin. See
p. 238.

Jizo (Ksitigarbha), the guardian of the children’s
souls. See p. 240.

Emma (Yama-raja), the Pluto of the Buddhist
hells. He is a furious manifestation of the same
genius as the benign genius, Jizo. See p. 238.

By Kukuchi Yosai (1788—1878). In possession
of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.







COSMOLOGICAL MYTHS


241


Buddha-lands are the realizations of the compassionate vows
of those Buddhas to save beings from transmigration, and
manifestations of the immeasurable merits accumulated by
them for this purpose. The Buddhist paradise, therefore, is
an embodiment of the Buddha’s wisdom and compassion, as
well as of the faith and enlightenment of his believers, and it is
called the “Land of Purity,” (Jodo) or “Realm of Bliss”
(Gokuraku), presided over by this or that Buddha.

To dwell no longer on the doctrinal views concerning the
paradises, the beliefs in those realms of bliss had a great influ-
ence on the popular imagination, and the descriptions of those
happy conditions are frequent in myths and tales. The descrip-
tions are, however, pretty much alike and say little more than
that the paradises are the realms of perpetual splendour and
infinite bliss. Yet we can distinguish three main paradises,
qualified in different manners and located in different quarters.
They were Tosotsu-ten (Tusita), or the “ Heaven of Content-
ment,” of the future Buddha, Maitreya (Japanese Miroku),
situated somewhere high in the sky; Gokuraku Jodo (Su-
khavatl), accomplished by the Buddha Amita, the Buddha of
Infinite Light and Life, situated in the west; and lastly Ryoju-
sen (Grdhra-kuta), idealized from the Vulture Peak where
Buddha Sakya-muni is believed to have preached the “ Lotus
of Truth.”

The first, the Heaven of Contentment, is a paradise still in
formation, because the Lord Maitreya is to become a full
Buddha in the future, and his paradise has been prepared for
those who are to be led to the final perfection on his appear-
ance; therefore it is a kind of ante-room for a real paradise.
Belief in this heaven is common among the people, and many
stories are told of the occasional visits made by human beings
to it.

The idealized Vulture Peak is placed in the third world and
is to be realized by every true Buddhist in this life through his


242 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

enlightenment in the truths taught in the Lotus. It may be
taken to stand for the present world transformed, and this
idealization of the actual world led the true Buddhists to take
a poetic and symbolic view of their surroundings, including
the animals and flowers, and impressed them with the possibil-
ity of close spiritual communion with the external world.
When we come to speak of tales of animals and plants, we
shall refer to the idea that the soul of an animal or a plant can
be saved by the miraculous power of the scripture Lotus ;
that idea is a result of the belief in the paradise of Vulture
Peak which is within the reach of anyone who is enlightened in
the truths revealed in the scripture.

But the paradisaical conception that exercised the greatest
influence upon popular beliefs was that of Gokuraku Jodo, and
when a paradise is mentioned without qualification the paradise
of Amita-Buddha is meant. Therein is a pond filled with
ambrosia, the lotus-flowers bloom in it, the terraces of trees are
decorated with jewels, the birds of paradise sing their heavenly
songs, the bells hanging on the trees play sweet music in the
soft breeze, and hosts of angels (Tennin) hover in the sky and
scatter flowers over the Buddha and his saints. 25 These descrip-
tive details were familiar to all Japanese ; they appear again
and again in poetry and in tales, and they were often used in
daily conversations.

According to Buddhist cosmology, the innumerable para-
dises are inhabited by beings of ideal perfection, and the uni-
verse, which contains countless worlds, is thronged with spirits,
some benevolent and some malicious.

Postponing the consideration of the malicious spirits to a later
Chapter, we may say a word here about the great guardians of
the world, the kings of the hosts of benevolent spirits. They
are four in number and are represented as warriors in full
armour, with swords or spears in their hands, and trampling
upon demons. The guardian of the east is Jikoku-ten (Dhrta-


COSMOLOGICAL MYTHS


243

rastra), “the Watch of the Lands ”j the south is guarded by
Zdcho-ten (Virudhaka), “ the Patron of Growth ”j in the west
stands Komoku-ten (Virupaksa), “ the Wide-gazing ”j and in
the north Bishamon-ten (Vaisravana), “the Wide-hearing”
or “ Renowned.” They are always on the watch for demons
who attack the world from the four quarters of the heavens,
and have special and tender care for Buddhists . 26 There were
pictures of these guardian kings in most Buddhist temples and
they were favourite figures in the religion of the people. Of
the four, Bishamon was most popular and in later times he was
even vulgarized into a patron of wealth.

It will be interesting here to refer to the Chinese counterpart
of the Buddhist guardians. Chinese cosmology teaches two
cosmic principles, Yin and .Yang, and five elements in the for-
mation of the world j and the guardians of the world repre-
sented principles and elements predominant in each of the four
quarters. The guardian of the south, where the positive prin-
ciple, Yang, rules, and the fiery element predominates, is sym-
bolized as the “ Red Bird.” In the north rules the “ Dark
Warrior,” a tortoise, the symbol of Yin, the negative principle,
and of the element water. The “ Azure Dragon ” in the east
symbolizes the growing warmth of spring and the element
wood. The “ White Tiger ” in the west represents autumn and
the metallic element . 27 These Chinese world-guardians existed
side by side with the Buddhist kings, without being confused
with them in the popular mind . 28


CHAPTER II


LOCAL LEGENDS AND COMMUNAL
CULTS

TOPOGRAPHY AND THE DIVISION INTO CLANS

T HE larger islands of Japan are intersected everywhere by
ranges of hills and rivers flowing between them, which
cross the islands perpendicularly to their length. Every valley
has its characteristic features, surrounded by fantastic peaks or
occupied by lakes that fill the low ground. The sea-coasts are
usually marked by bold cliffs, by alternate inlets and promon-
tories, by islets and rocks scattered over the bays. The land
thus widely diversified was, in ancient times, divided among
tribes of varying character and occupation; even to this day the
communes retain many of the ancient traditions and observances,
which they associate with ancestral memories and maintain as a
matter of local pride. The topographical features and the com-
munal heredities sufficiently explain the invention and preserva-
tion of scores of local legends peculiar to the different provinces
and communes.

The compilation of oral traditions, in the eighth century,
was primarily intended to give sanction to a political unity based
on the worship of the chief deity, the Sun-goddess. Yet many
communal legends and folk-tales were embedded in the central
narrative which dealt with the origin of the nation. Some
stories were common to many tribes, others were apparently
known only to single communities; but all found place in the
national mythology. Moreover, by special command in 713
— very near the time of the greater compilation — the local


LOCAL LEGENDS — COMMUNAL CULTS 245

legends in each province were collected, and in course of time
several records of that sort, called Fudo-ki , or “ Records of Air
and Earth,” were compiled, of which a few are preserved com-
plete, while of others many fragments remain. In later cen-
turies, especially during the feudal ages, similar labours were
undertaken, and besides the official registers of feudal states
there is a quantity of literature concerning the geography and
the local traditions of different provinces. These books are
usually called Meisho-Zuye which we may translate as “ Illus-
trated Guidebook to Famous Places,” and they supply rich ma-
terial for the study of local legends, a kind of H eimats-kunde ,
as the Germans call it, of the various provinces and cities.

INTRODUCTION


217

pand and stimulate the development of Japanese mythology,
but the innumerable Buddhist stories had a remarkable influ-
ence on the growth of Japanese folk-lore. Buddha is repre-
sented as having lived past lives without number, and these
offer inexhaustible stories of adventure and compassionate acts
which are found in the Jatakas (“ Birth-stories ”), Nidanas,
and Avadanas (stories of the causes of Buddha’s attainment).
Buddhist doctrines are also elucidated by many picturesque
similes and parables. As students of Buddhism and Indian
literature know well, most of these stories are told as the actual
experience of Buddha and of others in their existence in every
form of human, animal or even plant life . 5 They were used
very often for didactic purposes in Buddhist sermons, but they
helped to stimulate folk-lore as well, by familiarizing people
with the idea of personified animals and plants and by supply-
ing plots and morals to the fabulists.

Through this channel Japanese folk-lore derived much of its
materials from the same source from which ^Esop took his
fables, and many of those Indian stories became so completely
naturalized in Japan that they are widely known among people
who do not know that they come from an alien source. We
shall set down only a few of these Hindu- Japanese stories in
this book, and pursue no further the subject of the important
Indian influence on native folk-lore. We ought to call atten-
tion, however, to the fact that Japanese folk-lore is affected
not only by these particular foreign accretions but by the gen-
eral type of idea and imagination fostered by the Buddhist
religion.

Buddhism is pre-eminently a pantheistic religion, and
teaches that every being, sentient or non-sentient, is in spiritual
communion with ourselves and is destined, together with us, to
attain Buddha-hood. All beings are separate in appearance
but make up one continuity, united by the indissoluble tie of
moral causation, and based on one and the same reality. The


218


INTRODUCTION


continuity of life pervading all existences — this teaching in-
spired the Japanese with a broad sympathy toward their fellow
beings and surrounding nature. The religious ideal of Bud-
dhism consisted in realizing in thought this truth of the oneness
of existence, and in living a life of the broadest sympathy.
Seen in this light the universe is only a stage of spiritual com-
munion, and nothing in it is outside the pale of close fellowship.

This fundamental teaching and ultimate ideal were, more-
over, brought closer to our life of sympathy by the teaching of
karma, which meant the bond of moral causation. According
to that doctrine the present life is to be viewed as one link in
the endless chain of moral causation ; one’s present life is de-
termined by the qualities of one’s own past deeds and is destined
to determine the life that is to come. That is the 11 serial
continuity ” of our existence ; in addition there is a collateral
continuity.

That expression means that the individual life is not an iso-
lated product of one’s own karma but plays always a part in
one broad common destiny, enjoyed or suffered together with
one’s fellow-beings. “ Even touching of sleeves between two
persons, as if by mere chance, is a result of the karma that
connects the two.” This sentiment is felt in every human
relation. Parents and children, husband and wife, and other
less close relationships are manifestations of the continuity that
persists through life and may persist far into the future.

Not only human relationships but the physical surroundings
of one’s life are also connected by the same tie of karma. “ If
a Buddhist sees a butterfly flying among flowers, or a dew-drop
glittering on the leaf of a lotus plant, he believes that the
connection and the affinity that exist between these objects are
fundamentally like the links that bind human beings in their
life relations. That we enjoy the joyous singing of night-
ingales among the plum-blossoms is owing to the necessity of
the karma that connects us with these creatures.”


INTRODUCTION


219


In such a pantheistic religion there was always a strong incen-
tive to the play of poetic fancy as well as a constant urge toward
close sympathy with one’s fellow-beings and one’s physical
environment. Buddha himself, according to the Indian tales,
experienced in his countless reincarnations an infinite variety of
animal lives. So all his followers may have had such experi-
ences, and many stories tell how the narrator lived once as a
bird and used to sing among flowers, whose spirit later became
his wife.

As Buddhism stimulated imagination to dwell on the ties
that connect our life with other existences, Taoism supplied
additional material for fantastic stories about the supernatural.
Taoism represented the poetic genius and romantic tendency of
the Yutzu Valley Chinese in contrast to the practical and sober
traits of the northern Chinese, represented by Confucianism.
It laid a special emphasis on the necessity of returning to na-
ture, by which it understood a life freed from all human fet-
ters, social conventions and moral relationships. Its ideal
consisted in attaining through persistent training a life in com-
munion with the heart of nature, “ feeding oneself with ambro-
sial dew-drops, inhaling mists and cosmic ether.” The Taoist
who attained this ideal condition was called a Sennin or “ Man
of the mountain,” and was supposed to roam freely in the air
and to live an immortal life. The ideal of immortal existence
was often combined with the Buddhist ideal of perfect emanci-
pation from human passions, and this religion of naturalistic
mysticism was the natural source of many imaginary tales of
men or supermen who lived “ in the heart of nature ” and per-
formed their miraculous achievements by virtue of their re-
ligious merit.

Besides the miracles ascribed to these “ Men of the moun-
tains,” some of the most popular personifications of natural
objects owe their origin to a combination of Taoist beliefs with
Buddhist naturalism, represented by the Zen school. We shall


220 INTRODUCTION

meet with one of the instances in the story of the “ Mountain
Maid.”

The physical surroundings of the Japanese and the religious
influences which have been mentioned were favourable to an
opulent growth of tale and legend in which the phenomena of
nature were personified and imagination played freely. Yet
there was one counteracting force, and that was Confucianism.

The teachings of Confucius were rationalistic, and his ethics
tended to stifle human imagination and to limit human activity
to the sphere of civic life. Although the influence of Con-
fucian ideas in ancient Japan was limited to social and civic
institutions, these ideas could not but discourage the develop-
ment of folk-lore and imaginative creations. There had been
myths and legends in ancient China, but Confucius scorned
them and made them ridiculous. The Confucian literati in
Japan in turn looked with contempt upon folk-lore and similar
romantic tales. Especially during the three hundred years
between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries, the com-
plete sway of Confucian ethics as the moral standard of the
ruling classes was a great hindrance to the natural development
of the imaginative power of the race. 6 Nevertheless the ancient
traditions were preserved among the people and there is in
Japan a stock of myth and legend which rivals that of any other
nation.

In considering the mythology and folk-lore of the Japanese,
it is convenient to divide the stories into four classes. These
classes are: (i) cosmological myths and stories of origins, or
explanatory myths; (2) products of the imagination, i.e. fairy
tales and similar flights of fancy; (3) the play of romantic in-
terest in human life, i.e. romantic love stories and heroic tales;
(4) stories told for their moral lessons, or those which may
be interpreted as implying morals — fables or didactic stories,
together with humour and satire. 7


JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY


CHAPTER I

COSMOLOGICAL MYTHS AND TALES
OF ORIGINS

I. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION: LIFE AND

DEATH

J APANESE mythology, like the mythologies of many other
peoples, knows nothing about a creation by fiat, but postu-
lates the origin of things in spontaneous generation and their
development by generative succession. The explanation of the
origin of the universe through creation is grand} the myths of
spontaneous generation and transformation are soothing. The
former is monotheistic, for everything is made to depend on the
will and power of one almighty creator} the latter is hylozoistic,
or pantheistic, for all existences are credited with vitality in-
herent in themselves. It was this primitive Japanese concep-
tion of things which manifested itself in Shinto animism and,
later on, harmonized well with Buddhist pantheism.

Of course, there was a certain unlikeness between Shinto
animism and Buddhist pan-psychism. The former posited
metamorphosis by chance, or by the arbitrary will of a deity,
whereas the latter explained every change by the law of cau-
sation, both physical and moral, and denied any change through
chance. Yet this theoretical difference offered no grave ob-
stacle to a harmony between the two conceptions and the
mythologies that grew out of them} the arbitrary metamorpho-


222 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

sis of the Shinto conception was modified by the Buddhist con-
ception of causal transformation, and the latter was simply
extended in the popular mind by a looser idea of causation.
In the end the combination of these two conceptions made uni-
versal the belief that everything is endowed with an innate
vitality, and changes within itself as well as through external
circumstances. The application of this idea to all existences
gives us the key-note to all Japanese myths and tales.

In the beginning, as the ancient records 1 of Shinto tell us,
there was chaos, like an ocean of oil. Out of the primeval chaos
grew something like the sprout of a reed. It proved to be a
deity who was called the Eternal-Ruling-Lord , 2 and together
with him were generated two deities, called respectively the
High-Producing-god and the Divine-Producing-goddess . 3
We are not explicitly told that these two were husband and
wife, yet most probably they were so conceived. At any rate
these three are regarded as the original triad in the generation
of gods, men and things. But almost nothing further is heard
about them, except that some clans claimed descent from one
or another of them and that the High-Producing-god some-
times appears behind the Sun-goddess, as if he were her nou-
menon or associate.

The primeval triad is followed by a series of gods and god-
desses, who seem to be thought of as couples and were probably
personifications of germinating powers, such as mud, vapour
and seeds. All these are said to have “ hidden themselves,”
i.e. died, but not after the fashion of human mortality. After
a succession of these spontaneous generations and disappear-
ances, a couple appeared who were destined to generate many
things and many important gods. They were the “ Male-who-
invites ” (Izanagi) and the “ Female-who-invites ” (Izan-
ami ), 4 and we must learn more about them.

The two deities were sent down to the world by “ command
of the celestial deities ” in order to bring forth things on earth.













I:

L

r. :

-

.

• .






:?




























PLATE VII


The Primeval Couple


Izanagi and Izanami, standing in the clouds and
creating an island out of the sea-water. See pp. 222—
223.

By Yeilakul, a modern genre painter. In posses-
sion of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.




COSMOLOGICAL MYTHS


223

They descended from their home by the “ Floating Bridge of
Heaven.” 5 The male deity groped through space with his
sword, and the drops of salt water dripping from the tip of the
sword coagulated themselves into a little islet, called Ono-
koro, i.e. “ Self-coagulating.” 6 Upon that they landed and
were married, after they had gone round the islet in opposite
directions and met at the farther side. The first child born
to them was a miscarried creature, like a jelly-fish, on account
of a misdemeanour of the goddess during the wedding cere-
mony. That child was thrown into the water. Thereafter they
begot many things, or deities, such as the sea, the waterfalls,
the wind, the wood, the mountain, the field, etc. It was by the
power of the Wind-god that the primeval haze was dispersed
and things stood forth distinctly. After the birth of these and
many other deities, including the islands of the Japanese archi-
pelago (and, according to one version, also the rulers of the
universe, the sun, the moon and the storm), the birth of the
gods of fire proved fatal to the goddess, Izanami. Her death
was not unlike that of a human being from a fever, and it may
be called the first instance of human mortality. After death
she descended into Hades . 7

The death of the mother goddess is the beginning of the
antithesis between life and death, and of other cycles of similar
contrasts, like that of light and darkness, of order and atrocity,
etc.

The goddess Izanami died and descended to the Japanese
Hades, Yomotsu-kuni (“the Land of Gloom”). Her hus-
band Izanagi, like Orpheus, followed her to her subterranean
abode. The goddess asked him not to look at her. Yet, being
eager to see her, the husband lighted a little torch and, in the
darkness of the pit, beheld the ugly, decaying figure of the
goddess. She was angry at her husband’s disobedience and,
wishing to punish him by imprisoning him too in the Land of
Gloom, she pursued him as he fled. She called together all


224 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

the furies (Shikome, “ the ugly females ”) and ghosts of the
place, and they nearly caught him, but he threw behind him the
wild grapes and bamboo shoots that grew on his comb, and
the furies stayed to eat the fruits. After several narrow es-
capes and extraordinary experiences, the male deity succeeded
in reaching the boundary between Hades and the terrestrial
world. The furies and ghosts no longer pursued him, but the
female deity came as far as the pass into the world. There
the husband lifted a large rock and blocked up the aperture
that led to the upper world.

Then said the goddess in furious anger: “ Henceforth I
shall cause to die every day one thousand of thy people in thy
realm.” The god answered: “Then I shall give birth to one
thousand and five hundred every day.”

The two deities thus came to a final breach, and from
that day the births and deaths in this world are kept at the
proportion named. Through this breach between the origi-
nal couple who had generated all things in the world came
the division of the world between life and death. Let
us see how this antithesis is developed in a further mythic
cycle.

When the male deity succeeded in escaping capture by the
spirits of darkness and death, he purified himself, according to
the ancient custom, in a stream. The pollutions occasioned by
his contact with death in the Land of Gloom were washed
away one by one. From these stains came out various spirits
of evil and also spirits of protection against ill, the deities of
rapids, of whirlpools, etc. The last born were the Sun-goddess,
the “Heaven-illuminating Deity” (Ama-terasu), out of the
Father-god^ left eye; the Moon-god, the “Guardian of the
Moonlight Night” (Tsuki-yo-mi), out of the right eye; and
the Storm-god, the “Swift-impetuous Deity” (Susa-no-wo),
out of his nostrils. Of the three the Moon-god dwindled into
insignificance and the two others now began their contest.


COSMOLOGICAL MYTHS


225


II. THE RULERS OF THE WORLD: THE CONTEST
BETWEEN THE SUN-GODDESS AND THE
STORM-GOD

The eldest sister, the Sun-goddess, was resplendent in fea-
ture, dignified in attire, magnanimous and benignant in char-
acter, and shone gloriously in the sky. The rule over the heav-
ens was allotted to her. On the other hand, the youngest
brother, the Storm-god, was gloomy in appearance, full-
bearded, furious and impetuous in temper and strong in phy-
sique. The sea was the realm entrusted to his rule. While the
Sun-goddess fulfilled her duties and cared for the promotion
of life and light, the Storm-god was unruly, neglected his
realm and caused every sort of riot and tumult. Crying and
raging he declared that he longed for the mother’s abode, and
in his transports of fury he ravaged all the orderly arrange-
ments made by his sister, such as the irrigation works of the
rice-fields, and even the holiest place prepared for the feast
of the new harvest. The division of realms made by the
Father-god led to endless conflicts between the agent of life,
light, order and civilization and the author of disorder, destruc-
tion, darkness and death. We see the antithesis between the
primeval male and female deities, which had resulted in the
strife between life and death, transferred to a more desperate
conflict between the Sun-goddess and the Storm-god.

An interesting episode in the story is the visit of the Storm-
god to the sister’s heavenly abode, which ended in a com-
promise between the two. When the Sun-goddess perceived
that her brother was ascending toward her realm, “ the Plain
of High Heaven” (Taka-ma-no-hara), she was sure that
he was coming to usurp her domain, and made ready to meet
him, fully armed and with weapons in her hands. When at
last the Storm-god confronted her across the heavenly river


226 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

Yasu, 8 he explained that he had not come with mischievous
designs but simply to say farewell to his sister before going to
his mother’s realm. In order to testify to the mutual confi-
dence thus established, they agreed to exchange their posses-
sions and thereby to beget children.

The Sun-goddess gave her jewels to her brother, and the
Storm-god gave her his sword. Both of them drank from
the heavenly well in the river-basin and put into their mouths
the things they had exchanged. Out of the sword in the mouth
of the Sun-goddess came forth the goddess of rapids and whirl-
pools and finally a splendid boy, whom she named her beloved
son. Out of the jewels in the Storm-god’s mouth, were pro-
duced the gods of light and vitality.

So ended the encounter on the banks of the Yasu River with
evidences of mutual confidence, which, however, proved only
temporary.

In spite of their understanding, the Storm-god did not cease
his outrageous conduct. He went so far as to destroy the rice-
fields built by the Sun-goddess and to pollute her holiest ob-
servances. After these unbearable offences not only against
her but against the holy ceremonies she had instituted,
the Sun-goddess hid herself from her atrocious brother in a
heavenly cave. The source of light disappeared, the whole
world became dark, and evil spirits ran riot throughout the
world.

BUDDHIST MYTHS


193

Ku, the confederate, was first beaten and then cut into a thou-
sand pieces, while Liu Hung was taken to the river-bank near
the place where the murder was committed. There his heart
and his liver were torn out and burned, with sacrifices to the
spirit of the murdered Chen. The report of this was at once
carried to the Dragon King who summoned the ghost of Chen,
told him that his murderers had met their deserts and that, as his
wife and son were sacrificing on the river bank to him, he might
that day return to them. He then gave Chen many beautiful
gifts and ordered some of the spirits to release Chen’s body,
carry it to the mouth of the river, and there return to the body
its soul. As Chen’s wife was bewailing and lamenting her dead
husband at the edge of the river, suddenly a corpse was seen
floating toward them. As it came near, she recognized it as the
body of the long lost Chen. They drew it ashore, and as they
were wondering how such an amazing thing could have hap-
pened, suddenly the body began to move, and sat up. And
then Chen opened his eyes, to the astonishment and joy of his
wife and son. He appeared equally astonished at finding him-
self where he was, but soon heard the whole story. There was
great rejoicing all through the city at the resuscitation of Chen
Kuang-jui, and the King was so interested that he appointed
Chen to a high educational post. Yuan Chuang, the son, re-
turned to the Chin Shan monastery.

In every possible way Buddhism adapted itself to Chinese
opinions. It adopted Chinese architecture for its temples. It
allowed the government to impose upon it a form of organiza-
tion on the pattern of that of the State. It chose country sites
for its great monasteries, and gradually developed four great
centres in famous mountains which now rival, if indeed they
do not surpass, the original noted “ five mountains ” ( wu yo).
The four Buddhist mountains are (1) P’u-t’o, on an island
called by the same name off the coast of Chehkiang, near
Ningpo, (2) Chiu-hua, in the Province of Anhui, situated


194


CHINESE MYTHOLOGY


southwest of Wuhu, (3) Wu-t’ai, in the Province of Shansi,
and (4) O-mei, in the Province of Szechuan. By invoking
and honouring spiritual beings whom it found already existing
in China, Buddhism departed from the teaching of its founder,
and the chief intimate connection with this teaching was main-
tained through its insistence upon the duty of meditation. The
practice of meditation was well-known in China before the ar-
rival of Buddhism, and had been carried on from ancient times
by the “ Masters of Recipes” {fang shiK). These men were
known in the Chow dynasty and flourished in large numbers in
the Ch’in. They were recluses who devoted their whole time
to magical practices such as necromancy, exorcism and incanta-
tions. Buddhism found these men a good example for its own
priesthood and their abodes models for its temples.

There has never been any clear-cut distinction between Bud-
dhism and the teachings of the Liberal School which culminated
in the Taoist religion. This has been true not only among the
common people, but also among learned writers. Even the
Emperor Hui Tsung, 1100-1126 a.d., of the Sung dynasty,
who was an ardent supporter of Taoism, conferred upon Buddha
the title of “ The Golden Immortal of Great Knowledge ” (Ta
Chio Chin Hsien), thus incorporating him by Imperial author-
ity in the Taoist pantheon. The Chinese have given their own
adaptation in many instances to the Buddhistic deities brought
from India. The historic Buddha, Sakyamuni, is represented
in the attitude of meditation seated on a lotus-blossom, or as
about to enter Nirvana, when he is represented as the Sleep-
ing One (O-fo). The best known of the celestial Buddhas is
O-mi-t’o-fo (Amitabha) and his name is recited as the beads of
the rosary are counted. The Laughing Buddha, (Maitreya),
Mi-le-fo, is a tutelary deity in a class by himself. Among the
Bodhisattvas, or lower grade of deities, the most important is
Kuan Yin, goddess of Mercy. A Chinese legend makes her
the daughter of a King who lived in the seventh century b.c.,



Fig. 6i. A Hermit’s Mountain Hut



CHINESE MYTHOLOGY


196

though before the T’ang dynasty this deity was honoured as a
male figure. The development of the worship of Kuan Yin is
entirely due to Chinese influence, and she may be rightly con-
sidered as a Chinese deity. With her is associated another dis-
ciple, Ta-shih-chih, and together they are placed with the his-
toric Buddha as a Trinity of Three Holy Ones (San Sheng).
There are three other noted disciples, viz. Wen-shu (Man-
jusrl) who usually rides on an elephant, P’u-hsien who rides
on a lion, and Ti-tsang who is the Supreme Ruler of Hell and
has under him the twelve Kings of Hell. In addition to the
saints (Lo-han) and patriarchs, there are the tutelary gods who
are also adapted to Chinese ideas. Of these gods Wei T’o is
the best known. He is a warrior, with a sword which is some-
times held in his hands and sometimes rests crosswise on the
arms with the hands folded in prayer. Among these tutelary
gods is also found Kuan Ti (Kuan Yu) the national god of
war. In everything may be seen the moulding influence which
the traditional customs and beliefs of China have had upon the
form taken by Chinese Buddhism.

One of the best illustrations of the fusion of Buddhistic tra-
dition with indigenous beliefs is the account in the Shen Hsien
T'ung Chien of the feast given by the Pearl Emperor, Yu Ti,
to his assembled officers whom he wished to consult about his
proposed visit to the West for the purpose of studying Bud-
dhism. Yu Ti was distinctly an indigenous creation of the
Chinese mind, but he is also covered over with a heavy layer of
Buddhistic conceptions. The place where he assembled his offi-
cers was the Hall of the Thirty-third Heaven. He asked them
to help him to formulate plans for a visit to Buddha so that he
might receive instruction from him. Their united answer to
him contains the gist of the admixture of Buddhist and Taoist
thought which is now so common. They said: “ Every one,
who through seven generations has cultivated the principles of
the Immortals, and has not deviated from them, himself be-


BUDDHIST MYTHS


197

comes an Immortal. You have already attained this high hon-
our, but it will be necessary for you to follow your studies for
nine generations before you can go to the West. If you wish to
rid yourself completely from the miseries of life and death,
you must become incarnate, lead the life of a hermit, and by
practising virtue, finally become a Buddha. Otherwise your
wish cannot be fulfilled.” Yu Ti became a man, passed through
several incarnations, and finally was admitted to the Buddhist
paradise where he attained his desire of being taught by Buddha.
It is a long tale full of interesting details, all of which illustrate
the admixture or commingling of Buddhist and Taoist teach-
ings in such a manner that it is difficult to separate them.

The people of China have only adopted such Buddhistic
ideas as have been readily assimilated into their previous con-
ceptions. The ancient religion of China, both in its Conserva-
tive and Liberal forms, recognized the supervision and control
of mundane affairs by higher powers who rewarded the good
and punished the wicked. Their worship of ancestors showed
their belief in the continued existence of the soul after death.
It was therefore easy for the people to accept the Buddhistic
teaching about rewards and punishments with its accompani-
ments of Heavens and Hells, and also the doctrine of reincar-
nation or transmigration of souls. Buddhism became the
means for the delivery of souls from torment. Although this
doctrine of the lot of a soul in the future world being influ-
enced by prayers from this world is not in harmony with origi-
nal Buddhist teachings, it has been fostered among the common
people as if it were thoroughly orthodox. It is unquestionably
the emphasis which Buddhism has placed upon the relation of
man to the future world that has given it its strong hold upon
the people. Even with the highly educated and the highly pro-
moted, a change in circumstances or the facing of approaching
death attracts them to the teachings of Buddhism and to the
observance of its ceremonies. Notwithstanding the adherence


vm — 14


1 98 CHINESE MYTHOLOGY

of the people to many of the external observances of Buddhist
temples, it must be remembered that the people of China share
very little in the genuine ideas of Buddhistic teaching. They
observe such ceremonies as conform to the general principles of
their own indigenous religion which is represented on the one
hand by the State ceremonies, and on the other by the traditions
embodied in Taoism. China cannot be considered as a Bud-
dhistic nation.


CHAPTER XVI


CRITICISM

T HE way of the propagators of myths has not always been
smooth. Confucius said: “ Although you may respect
spiritual beings, hold them at a distance. This is the part of
wisdom.” This agnostic attitude toward everything supernat-
ural may be considered the ideal of the Confucian teaching; this
teaching exhausted man’s duty by circumscribing it within the
bounds of the known world.

Wang T’ung, 583-616 a.d., of the Sui dynasty, was a strong
opponent of all forms of myth. He upheld the teachings of
Confucius and criticised Tso-ch’iu Ming, the author of the Com-
mentary on the “ Spring and Autumn Annals ” (Tso Chuan ),
for introducing so many legends into his book. For the same
reason he condemned the “History” ( Shih Chi ) of Ssu-ma
Ch’ien and its supplement by Pan Ku. He was the first to
throw discredit upon the tradition of the Feng Shan ceremony
having been performed by seventy-two ancient Emperors, be-
ginning with Wu Huai and continuing down through the Hsia,
Shang and Chow dynasties. Wang T’ung was a man of upright
character and unusual intelligence. At nineteen years of age he
made a journey to the capital, Ch’ang-an, and laid before the
Emperor “Twelve Plans for Peace” (t’ai-p’ing shih-er ts y e ),
which were approved but pigeon-holed. He must be given
credit for having been one of the first critics of fables, but he
was as a voice crying in the wilderness. The T’ang dynasty,
which came into power shortly after Wang T’ung’s death, gave
no heed to his admonitory writings, although it is said that the
Emperor T’ai Tsung held them in high respect. They did not,


200


CHINESE MYTHOLOGY


however, check or restrain the generations which immediately
succeeded him from becoming the most prolific sources of myths
in the long history of China.

It was not until the Sung dynasty that the pioneer work of
Wang T’ung received due recognition. Ma Tuan-lin, author
of Wen Hsien T’ung K’ao, praises his work. Ma himself was
an able critic. He canvassed the whole field of antiquity with
the view of expurgating it of myths and finding precedents for
the benevolent autocracy in which he believed. There was a
great amount of critical work done during the Sung dynasty,
but none was of greater importance than that of Ma Tuan-lin.

The most bitter as well as the most amusing critic of myths,
was Han Yu, 768-824 a.d., of the T’ang dynasty. In 819 he
was in the position of Censor when the Emperor Hsien Tsung
proposed to pay unusual respect to one of the finger-bones of
Buddha which had been preserved as a relic in a temple at Feng
Hsiang in Shensi Province. This bone was enclosed in a case
which could only be opened once in thirty years, but when
opened would bring great prosperity to the Empire. The Em-
peror ordered it to be escorted to the capital and opened in the
palace with elaborate pomp and ceremony. Following the ex-
ample of the Emperor all classes of the people from highest to
lowest offered gifts to the relic. Han Yu, single-handed, op-
posed the demonstration with a spirit which must be considered
heroic when the conditions of the times are remembered. In
his remonstrance Han Yu pointed out that Buddhism is only a
barbaric superstition which was introduced into China during
the Han dynasty. Previous to its arrival the Emperors of an-
tiquity lived to a good old age, the Empire was at peace and its
people contented. After this new teaching began, disorder and
ruin followed in close succession. The Empire was broken up
into small principalities and the dynasties were of short dura-
tion. The more devoted the rulers were to Buddhistic teaching,
the more disaster they brought upon themselves and the coun-


CRITICISM


201


try. When the first Emperor of the T’ang dynasty came to the
throne it was his original intention to prohibit Buddhism, but he
was dissuaded by his Ministers from carrying it into effect.
“ When you, the present Emperor, came to the throne I had
great expectations that you would carry out this proposal of
your illustrious ancestor, and was pleased when you issued pro-
clamations prohibiting the people from becoming Buddhist or
Taoist priests. Only a few years have passed since you took this
commendable action and now you are found reversing entirely
your former opinions. You have employed a host of priests to
escort a bone of Buddha to the capital. You must know that
this procedure cannot bring blessings upon yourself ; you must
have ordered it in the hope that it would lead the people to ex-
pect a prosperous year, or perhaps even for the purpose of
amusing them. The populace, however, misunderstands your
object and interprets what you have done as a sincere reverence
for Buddha. Soon you will see them observing all the objec-
tionable rites of this false religion to the neglect of their proper
duties to the State. It is ridiculous to pay such honour to the
bone of any dead person. In ancient times when funeral rites
were conducted with propriety it was not allowable to touch a
corpse, but now you have encouraged your Ministers to handle
such a loathsome object as the bone of a dead person. You must
renounce what you have done, throw the disgusting bone into
a river or burn it so as to warn the people against such infamous
delusions.”

These were the caustic words of Han Yii. Some of the Min-
isters recommended that he should be condemned to death for
such unjustifiable railing against his Sovereign 5 but a saner view
was taken by the Emperor himself, who appointed him to the
distant post of Prefect of Ch’ao-chou in Canton Province. Han
Yu later described this place in a memorial as the “ abode of
typhoons and crocodiles where the air is malarial and poison-
ous.” Here he remained during the tragic years when the Em-


202


CHINESE MYTHOLOGY


peror came under the influence of the hated eunuch, Ch’eng
Ts’ui, and spent most of his time searching for the elixir of life.
It is generally believed that the Emperor was poisoned by one
of these potions, as was also his son and successor, Mu Tsung.
The calamities against which Han Yu had warned the Emperor
actually came to pass during the life-time of this faithful and
fearless Minister.

Han Yu had a delightful sense of humour along with his
keen discrimination. He issued a solemn proclamation against
crocodiles in the name of the Imperial power of which he was
the local representative. This was a sly thrust at the over-
weening complaisance of officials with the whims of the Em-
peror. The proclamation was issued in 820 a.d. and was ad-
dressed to the crocodiles. He reminded them of the lenience
with which he had treated them since he had assumed the office
of Prefect. This was in contrast even to what had been done
by ancient kings who had not hesitated to drive out all snakes,
reptiles and poisonous creatures. “ It is only because this place
is so far from the capital seat of Imperial power that you, croco-
diles, dare to lurk round in the waters of the coast where you
plunder food and propagate your young. However, I am the
duly appointed representative of the all-powerful Emperor
and am charged with the duty of caring for his people who live
in this district. In my high position of responsibility I shall not
allow myself to be terrorized by you, crocodiles. If you have
any intelligence you will listen to my words. Within three
days you are commanded to betake yourselves to the Great
Ocean where you will find myriads of fish upon which you can
feed. If you cannot reach a desirable place in three days I will
extend the time to five or even seven days, but beyond that
period I will not suffer your presence in these waters. If you
disobey my commands I will select the most expert of my offi-
cers and men and we shall come with bows and poisoned arrows
with which we shall utterly exterminate vour whole race.”


CRITICISM


203

It is characteristic of the credulity of the age in which Han
Yu lived that none of his contemporaries allowed themselves
to comment upon this proclamation except in terms which took
it seriously. One of them gravely remarks that following the
issuing of these orders a violent storm raged for several days
during which the crocodiles were all driven away. There could
be no better evidence than this of the grip of occult influences
in which the people of the T’ang dynasty were held.

A similar performance to that of Han Yu with the crocodiles
was enacted by Hu Yin of the Sung dynasty, who died 1151
a.d. It occurred in this same city of Ch’ao-chou. The “ Sung
Dynasty History ” ( Sung Shih ) records that when Hu Yin was
Prefect of Ch’ao-chou he heard of the mysterious powers of a
large serpent which, the priests claimed, had power to control
the prosperity of the district. Former incumbents of the office
of Prefect had been accustomed to pay high respect to this ser-
pent, but Hu Yin decided to expose the fallacious pretensions
which were claimed for it by the priests. He ordered it to be
brought to his official residence and then said to it: “ If you are
a spirit, change yourself into one within three days, or at the
end of that time I will kill you.” There was no transformation,
and Hu Yin carried out his threat, destroyed the serpent and
punished the deceitful priests.

Many other similar examples of opposition might be quoted,
but they would be lost in the multitude of corroborations of
miraculous interventions with which Chinese books are crowded.
As in every country, the intelligent objectors to superstitious
beliefs formed a small minority in the age in which they lived.
It is only by succeeding generations that the value of their
courageous criticism has been recognized. With the growth of
modern scientific knowledge there will be a gradual loosening
of the hold which these beliefs have upon the people, and the
work of the pioneer critics will be increasingly appreciated.

EXEMPLARY TALES


i73

to sweep the floor. The magistrate, Chung Li, passing through
the room, found the new maid-servant leaning on her broom
and weeping copiously. He asked her what the trouble was,
and she told him the story of the ball which had fallen into
the cavity in the floor of that very room, and of her father’s
praise for her intelligence in suggesting a way of recovering
it. She went on and told him of her life since her father’s
death and of her ill-treatment at the hands of the wife of
Chia Chang. The magistrate was greatly impressed and
amazed to learn that she was the daughter of a man of his
own rank, and he immediately thought of a plan whereby he
might atone for having treated the daughter of the late magis-
trate as a low-born menial. He consulted with the magistrate
of an adjoining district, Kao, and arranged a marriage with
Kao’s younger son. After the wedding Chung Li had a dream
in which Yiieh Hsiang’s father, Shih P’i, appeared to him, and
said that because of the kindness he had shown his daughter, he
had interceded with the Supreme Being, who had offered a son
as a reward to Chung Li, in order to spread the fame of the
family. The deity also highly approved of the conduct of the
magistrate Kao, and as recompense to him, had offered to
raise his two sons to high offlce. As soon as Chung Li awoke
he told his dream and went to the temple to burn incense, con-
tributing one hundred taels of his salary. In fulfilment of the
promise, his wife, at the age of forty years, had a son who be-
came Senior Wrangler. Chung Li rose to the office of Grand
Secretary and lived to be ninety years of age.

Chia Chang, upon his return, was angry to find that his wife
had sent Yiieh Hsiang and her nurse away, but after investiga-
tion was satisfied to learn that they were both happily married.
He would, however, no longer live with his faithless wife, and
married one of her maids. They had two sons. Thus all
parties met with their rewards.


CHAPTER XIV


THEATRICAL TALES

T HE most popular and widely known tales of early Chi-
nese life are those which concern the events at the close
of the Han dynasty, when the country was divided into the
Three Kingdoms of Shu, Wei and Wu. These were woven
into a series of historical dramas called the San Kuo Chih Yen I
by Lo Kuan-chung in the twelfth century, and soon became the
most stirring national events that have ever been produced on
the stage. The period covered is from 1 68 to 265 a.d. The
narrative begins with the domination of the eunuchs during the
reign of Ling Ti when the Empress Tou was regent. It was
against the power of the eunuchs that the great literary states-
man, Li Ying, vainly hurled himself at the cost of his life.
Soon the rebellion of the “Yellow Turbans” (Huang Chin)
broke out, headed by Chang Chio who succeeded in raising a
force of nearly four hundred thousand men. This large body
of men had been brought together by a common belief in the
magical powers of Chang Chio and of his two brothers. These
men made capital of this popular trust in their powers, fra-
ternized with the eunuchs and plotted insurrections.

During the rebellion, Liu Pei entered into a solemn covenant
with Kuan Yu and Chang Fei, which was known as the “ Peach-
Orchard Oath ” (T’ao Yuan San Chieh I), the purpose of
which was to reclaim the declining fortunes of the Han dy-
nasty. These three men, among seven hundred characters,
became the central figures of the drama; though this position
would scarcely be warranted by historic facts. Of the three,
Liu Pei is the foremost as was his right on account of his being


THEATRICAL TALES


175


the descendant of the Imperial House of Han and himself
the founder of the Han dynasty in Shu, the modern Szechuan.
He is represented as a paragon of kingly virtue. He was al-
ways calm and dignified. The men associated with him gave
him the respect due to a king. He had some ability as a leader
up to the time when he became King} then he lapsed into a
state of helplessness, such as is supposed to be natural to this
position. He was stern and devoted to justice even to the point
of throwing to the ground his infant son who had been rescued
with his mother by the personal valour of his General, Chao
Yiin. He blamed the child for causing a valuable general to
run the risk of losing his life. He himself was by no means
brave under all circumstances, for when defeat came he took
refuge in flight, leaving his generals and soldiers to their fate.
He had an extraordinary personal appearance. His ears were
so long that they reached to his shoulders, his arms reached be-
low his knees and he could look behind him with his eyes.

The rise of the Three Heroes was very slow. They wan-
dered from place to place associating themselves at one time
with one leader, and then with another. Sometimes they
helped Ts’ao Ts’ao, and again they are found on the side of
Ts’ao’s enemies. They met with no signal success until Liu
Pei discovered the hermit, Chu-ko Liang, in his reed hut. Liu
Pei was astonished to find the profound knowledge of Chu-ko
Liang, and likened his discovery to that of a fish being restored
to the water. The record of this meeting of Liu Pei with
Chu-ko Liang occupies three chapters of the drama, thus
emphasizing the importance of this extraordinary man. After
the aid of this great General has been secured, the drama nar-
rates the preparations for the great battle at Ch’ih Pi, the mod-
ern Chia Yu Hsien, about fifty miles west of Hankow, on the
Yangtze River. The army of Ts’ao Ts’ao is represented as
numbering about one million men, and so confident was this
immense force of its success that it lay idle for a whole month


CHINESE MYTHOLOGY


176

waiting for Liu Pei to appear. Previous to the great battle
there had been innumerable fights and skirmishes in which
various heroes showed their prowess, but the battle had no
sooner begun than it ended in the utter rout of Ts’ao Ts’ao.
After this great exploit little is said of the two other heroes,
Kuan Yu and Chang Fei, whereas much is made of the wonder-
ful deeds of Chu-ko Liang. He headed an expedition to the
south where he performed many deeds of valour against the
turbulent barbarians called Man I. Liu Pei rose rapidly to
power and founded his new Han dynasty with his capital at
Ch’eng-tu. This kingdom was not so powerful as that of Wei
founded by Ts’ao Ts’ao, nor so wealthy as that of Wu founded
by Sun Ch’uan, but lesser attention is paid to these two king-
doms in the plot of the drama, which makes Liu Pei the leading
person.

Kuan Yu was the noblest of the Three Heroes. He re-
mained faithful to the oath which he had sworn in the Peach
Garden and was always true in his allegiance. Though he was
a great warrior, he remained a kindly man, as shown by his
allowing Ts’ao Ts’ao to escape from punishment by death for
carelessness. When Ts’ao Ts’ao had made him many valuable
presents, he returned to his companions still clad in the old
armour which had been given to him by his sworn brother. He
fought bravely against Sun Ch’uan, and rejected the offer of
mercy, though he paid the penalty of it with his life. He had
a striking personality, his long flowing beard making him very
distinguished in appearance.

Ts’ao Ts’ao was the villain of the drama. He was bold but
stupid, and is represented as always falling into traps which
were laid for him. He is resourceful in plans but always fails
to carry them to completion. His cruelty was constantly being
shown by the severe punishments which he meted out to all
who opposed his will. He killed the entire household of his
father’s sworn brother with his own hands and he attempted


THEATRICAL TALES


177


to assassinate Tung Cho. He was not wholly devoid of kind-
ness, as is shown by his treatment of Kuan Yu while he was his
prisoner, finally allowing him to escape. He was bold and
intolerant, and it was these qualities which brought about his
death. He had decided to build a great palace for himself
and, in order to obtain a large pillar, ordered a pear-tree to be
cut down. Whenever the axe struck the tree groans proceeded
from it. This irritated Ts’ao Ts’ao and he determined to cut
the tree down himself, but at his first stroke he was splashed
with blood. During the following night the spirit of the tree
visited him, and after reprimanding him for what he had done,
struck him a blow on the head. This blow threw him into a
delirium, during which the spirits of the hundreds of people
whom he had slain, tormented him, and from this he never
rallied.

Chang Fei takes an unimportant part in the development of
the plot. He is described as being eight feet in height, with
large round eyes, sharp jaws, a head like a leopard and whisk-
ers like a tiger. He was courageous on all occasions, at one
time taking his stand upon a bridge and defying the whole of
Ts’ao Ts’ao’s army. He was the faithful adjutant of Liu Pei
and became his Minister after Liu Pei had set up his new
dynasty.

The other great hero of the book is Chu-ko Liang, who is
generally given the affectionate title of K’ung Ming. It would
be impossible to exaggerate the extraordinary virtues which are
ascribed to this man. Everything he attempted or advised was
certain of success. He is the perfect example of a brilliant
genius combined with exemplary virtue. He was able to call
to his aid not only the useful inventions which he contrived, but
also extraordinary powers which no one else understood.

Innumerable tales have been told concerning the great deeds
of this wonderful man. The following is an interesting ex-
ample of his brilliance in military strategy. In consultation


CHINESE MYTHOLOGY


178

with Chou Yu, a clever young statesman, regarding the plan
of attack of their enemy Ts’ao Ts’ao, K’ung Ming stated that
Ts’ao Ts’ao had collected an army of a million men and
would probably attack them by water. He then inquired what
would be the best weapons to use in frustrating such an attack.
Chou Yu answered that they would need bows and arrows, but
that the army was extremely short of arrows and would need
at least one hundred thousand. K’ung Ming promised on
penalty of his life to produce the required number in three
days. He then asked for twenty or thirty large boats, a large
quantity of straw and cloth, and about forty soldiers who were
to bring drums and gongs with them. When all these were
produced, K’ung Ming had the straw made up into shapes
like men, which were clothed and placed in position on the
decks. Very early on the morning of the third day, K’ung
Ming and a counsellor of Chou Yii’s named Lu Hsiin, who
had been detailed to watch events, went aboard one of the
vessels with the forty soldiers, the whole fleet was then un-
moored and the boats floated down-stream. Just as the boats
approached Ts’ao Ts’ao’s fleet, a heavy fog fell, all of which
had been correctly calculated by K’ung Ming. He then or-
dered the soldiers to beat their gongs and drums and make as
much noise as possible. Ts’ao Ts’ao’s archers, alarmed, and
fearing an attack, fired in the direction of the sound. This
firing continued for over an hour, when K’ung Ming ordered a
retreat. As they retired, he ordered his soldiers to shout their
thanks to Ts’ao Ts’ao for his liberal supply of arrows. The
arrows were found in greatest profusion, sticking to the straw
dummies. Over a hundred thousand were thus collected from
the enemy without the loss of a single life.

Supernatural powers and extraordinary events are frequently
mentioned in the drama. The magical leaders who were with
the Yellow Turbans were able to cause stones to fly, fierce winds
to arise, and paper men to appear from the earth. When an


THEATRICAL TALES


179

army of men from the kingdom of Wei had attacked the terri-
tory of Shu, K’ung Ming frightened them away by suddenly
appearing in a ghostly form. When K’ung Ming was on his
southern expedition, an old hermit gave him information re-
garding the best way to attack his enemies, and to Ts’ao Ts’ao
an old white-haired stranger appeared telling him how he
could build a wall about his camp. At important crises clever
advice is given by some previously obscure person, and this ad-
vice leads to a great victory. At one time the General Chao
Yiin appeared with a small troop at the critical moment, when
it seemed certain that Kung-sun Chao would be defeated. The
marvellous personal appearance of Chao Yiin accomplished in
a few moments what Kung-sun Chao’s army dared not attempt.
Leaders burst into beleaguered cities or arrive with dispatches
just when the turn of events is most urgent. Rescuing forces
are hidden in convenient ravines or behind trees, ready to ap-
pear at the opportune time. Such incidents are not necessarily
historical but they contribute their share to this remarkable
drama, the parts of which have been presented in all proba-
bility to more hearers than any similar production in the history
of the world. This summary is a very inadequate presentation
of San Kuo Chih, which would require a book devoted wholly
to its translation if one tried to describe all its scenes.

Kuo Ai of the T’ang dynasty was the son of Kuo Tzu-i. He
was one of a large family of seven sons and eight daughters.
On account of the great merit of his father, the Emperor T’ai
Tsung arranged the marriage of his daughter with Kuo Ai.
This was a high honour, but was considered appropriate, inas-
much as Kuo Ai’s father had already been raised to the rank
of Prince of Feng-yang. The young couple did not get on
very well together, the husband boasting that it was due to the
merit of his father that the Emperor held his throne, and the
wife making too much of her rank as a Princess. One day
Kuo Ai told his wife that she might be very proud of having


180 CHINESE MYTHOLOGY

an Emperor for her father, but that if his father wanted to be
Emperor he could easily become such. At this she became very
angry and said some harsh things to her husband, whereupon
he twice slapped her on the face. She rushed off in a rage to
tell her father, the Emperor, and accused her husband of dis-
loyalty on account of the remarks which he had made about his

father, Kuo Tzu-i.
The Emperor took the
episode very calmly
and said that the squab-
ble which they had had
was probably due en-
tirely to their youth.
While the daughter
was stating her case to
her father, Kuo Tzu-i
himself appeared upon
the scene bringing his
son Kuo Ai with him,
whom he had bound in
chains. He requested
the Emperor to order
the summary execution
of his son for the dis-
respect which he had
shown to the Emperor’s daughter. The Emperor refused to
do so and with magnanimity of spirit pardoned everybody.

Other theatrical tales centre around Yo Fei and his wife.
After the death of Yo Fei’s father he was taught by his
mother, and many instances are dramatized depicting the care
which the mother took of her son. She chose for him a good
wife, and after his marriage he obtained the highest degree in
the national examinations. After volunteering for service in
suppressing the northern invaders, he himself became the vie-



THEATRICAL TALES


181


tim of false charges. Being imprisoned he was obliged to be
absent from his family, and many songs are introduced into
plays praising the virtue of Yo Fei in placing public duty be-
fore that which he owed to his mother. When Yo Fei returns
home he finds his wife and inquires from her where his mother
is. His wife informs him that his mother divides her time
between teaching his young son and worshipping Buddha. He
hastens to see his mother and tells her it was only on account
of his desire to see her that he left camp. The mother replies
that her only wish is that her son should be loyal to the Em-
peror. The mother and wife are torn between the two natural
feelings of keeping Yo Fei at home and of wishing him to do
his duty to his country. It was the time when the Emperor had
been taken prisoner by the Nii-chen Tartars and the capital
was in the hands of the enemy. Yo Fei wanted to go to the
rescue of the Emperor, but could not persuade himself that it
was right for him to do so in view of what he should do for
his mother. His mother remonstrated with him for this and
insisted that he should go. Before sending him off she tattooed
four characters on his back which meant “ Serve your country
with pure loyalty.” Yo Fei left his mother and his wife with
their blessings upon his head, although he had assured both
that it was probable he would never return.

The last days of the unfortunate Ming Emperor, Ch’ung
Cheng, 1427—1444 a.d., were full of stirring events, some of
which have been dramatized in the famous tragedy “ The
Lamentation of Ch’ung Cheng ” {Ch’ung Cheng T’ah). The
scenes that took place between the Emperor and his family on
the fatal days which resulted in the capture of Peking on
April 9, 1444, by the rebel Li Tzii-ch’eng, are depicted with
striking detail. The Emperor recalls the calamities which have
befallen the Empire during the seventeen years of his rule —
famine, flood, pestilence, drought, fire — all ending in rebel-
lion which his own troops were powerless to quell. Entering


i 82


CHINESE MYTHOLOGY


her court-yard he beheld the Empress shedding bitter tears,
but seeing the troubled face of the Emperor she restrained her
own feelings and tried to comfort him. While they were
talking together the boom of cannon and the neighing of horses
mingled with the shouts of the men who were attacking the
city. Their son entered and the Emperor left him with his
mother while he remained wrapped in his own gloomy
thoughts. Suddenly he realized that the two had been gone
for a very long time and started to find them, only to discover
that the Empress had thrown herself into a well. While he
was lamenting the death of his Empress his beautiful young
daughter hastened to his side. The Emperor said to her:
“ How can I allow you to fall into the hands of the rebels? ”
and thereupon, after tenderly embracing her, slew her with
his own sword. He then commanded a servant to go with him
to Coal Hill (properly called Prospect Hill or Ching Shan)
and to bring writing material. The Emperor partially dis-
robed himself and climbed, bare-headed and bare-footed, half-
way up the eastern side of the hill. Here he stopped to write
his last words: “ Rebels have captured the Empire. How can
I face my ancestors? Do what you like with my body, but do
not injure my innocent people.” He put this writing into
his pocket, loosened his own silk girdle, went up a fir-tree, to
a limb of which he tied the girdle and thus hanged himself.
When the victorious Li Tzu-ch’eng had been led to the
spot where the Emperor was hanging, he ordered the body
to be taken down and treated with respect. “This was an
Emperor who loved his people,” was his comment when Li
read the paper which was taken from the body of the dead
Emperor.

There are many other plots centreing around great characters
such as were conspicuous at the founding of the various dy-
nasties. In contrast with these historical plays are those with
modern plots which are to a certain extent didactic. As an