The Cruelty of the Nine-Tailed Fox Daji - 妲己

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In an earlier post (千字文 – Line 13), it was mentioned that it was the beautiful concubine Daji 妲己 who caused the downfall of the Shang dynasty. King Zhou conquered the state of Yousu 有蘇 yǒusū and took Daji as his prize (be careful of what you win). He became extremely besotted with her beauty and lost all interest in state affairs but instead caters to her every whims and extreme cruelty to amuse her.

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She is said to derive great joy at hearing people cry in physical torment. She ordered a farmer’s feet to be cut off so she can study why he can withstand crossing icy water. And a pregnant women’s belly to be cut open to see if her guess of the sex of the baby is correct. To verify an ancient saying that "a good man's heart has seven apertures", she even had the heart of the minister Bi Gan (King Zhou's uncle) dug out.

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She is claimed to have invented many instruments of torture, the most famous of which is the bronze toaster or Paoluo 炮烙 páoluò. The poor victim is tied to this twenty feed tall charcoal heated cylinder and fried alive. Another of her invention is the snake pit where victims are thrown into a pit of venomous snakes and spiders. His own people disgusted with these acts of cruelty, revolted against King Zhou’s tyranny and supported King Wu of Zhou when he attacked. Daji was executed on the order of King Wu on the advice of Jiang Ziya (see last post).

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In the novel Fengshen Yanyi 封神演义 fēngshényǎnyì translated as “The Investiture of the Gods” or “The Creation of the Gods”, Daji was a nine-tailed fox spirit Huli jing 狐狸精 . In it, King Zhou visited an ancient temple of the Goddess Nuwa 女娲; nǚwā, he insulted the Goddess when he expressed his lust for her. Nuwa sent Daji, the ten thousand year vixen, a nine-headed pheasant spirit and jade pipa spirit to bewitch the king and hasten his downfall. There were many other interesting tales in this novel. In the end, Daji was condemned by Nuwa herself because of her extreme cruelty. This is the most famous Chinese classic tale of how a beauty caused the downfall of an empire and you can have either the historical or fairy tale version.

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Cangjie Invented the Chinese Characters and Leizu, Silk. Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Line 11.

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始制文字, 乃服衣裳。
shǐ zhì wén zì, nǎi fú yī shāng。

始 (begin) 制 (create) 文字 (Chinese characters),

The first part means the beginning of Chinese characters which led to a written language. Legend has it that it was Cangjie 仓颉 cāngjié, the official historian of the Yellow Emperor who invented the Chinese characters. It is said that deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet on the day he invented the characters.

Instructed by the Yellow Emperor, Cangjie settled by a river bank but could not create anything. One day, a phoenix flying overhead dropped an object from its beak and where it dropped Canjie saw an impression of a hoof-print. He asked a local hunter who said that it is without doubt that of a PiXiu 貔貅 (a mystical winged lion). Drawing inspiration from this, he realized that he can create a character by capturing the unique characteristics of all things. From that day, he paid close attention to all things to try to capture their essence and meaning in a character and thus the Chinese characters were born.

乃 (then) 服 (wear) 衣裳 (clothing)

Then, man begins to wear clothes. Legend has it that it was the Leizu 嫘祖 Léi Zǔ, wife of the Yellow Emperor who discovered silkworms in 3000BC and invented the silk reel and the silk loom. It was said that one day she found silkworms eating the mulberry leaves. She collected some cocoons and accidentally dropped one of them into her hot cup of tea. She found a fine thread started to separate from the cocoon and that she could unwind this soft thread around her finger. She invented the silk reel which joins the filaments into a thread strong enough for weaving.

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The Fishes in the Sea and the Birds in the Sky: Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Line 9.

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海咸河淡, 鳞潜羽翔。
hǎi xián hé dàn, lín qián yǔ xiáng

海 (sea) 咸 (salty) 河 (river) 淡 (fresh),

The sea water is salty while the river is fresh. 淡 dàn by itself also means dilute, weak or thin and in this case refers to the fresh water.

鳞 (fish scale) 潜 (submerge) 羽 (feather) 翔 (soar)

The fish swim in the sea and birds fly in the sky. 潜 qián also means latent, to hide. Nathan considered this to be the end of the first chapter which begins with the heavens and earth and conclude with common knowledge about nature. However, other researchers separate the 125 lines of 千字文 by other forms.

(I'll be going to the Bridge over River Kwai early tomorrow for a week, see you when I get back).

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Plums & Crab Apples, Mustard Greens & Gingers: Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Line 8.

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果珍李柰, 菜重芥姜。
guǒ zhēn lǐ nài, cài zhòng jiè jiāng

果 (fruit) 珍 (precious) 李 (plum) 柰 (crab- apple),

The most precious of the fruits are the plums or peaches and apples. I do not know why crab apples are so important to the Chinese except they can be used as sour condiment, can anyone enlighten me?

菜 (vegetables) 重 (important) 芥 (mustard) 姜 (ginger)

The most valuable of the vegetables are the mustard greens and gingers. They are not only valued as food but also for their medicinal values. The mustard is believed to be good for the eyes and the ginger reduces the gas in the body system.

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“Legendary Sword & Luminous Pearl”. - Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Line 7.

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剑号巨阙, 珠称夜光。
jiànhào jù què, zhū chēng yè guāng.

剑 (sword) 号 (named) 巨阙 (JuQue),

Of all the swords, the most famous was named 巨阙 jùquè (巨 is huge 阙 no meaning as a single syllable word). It was one of 5 swords that King Goujian of Yue 越王勾踐 yuè wáng Gōu Jiàn (reigned 496 BC - 465 BC) presented to the King of Wu after his defeat but he was insulted and humiliated during his imprisonment. Later after his release, he used this sword 巨阙 jùquè to defeat the King of Wu and exacted his revenge. This happened during the end of the Spring and Autumn Period 春秋时代 hūnqiū shídài. I will be telling this tale in greater details in a later post.

This sword was buried for more than 2000 years and when it was found there was no rust at all! It is a delicately made bronze sword measuring 55.6 cm in total length (slightly less than 2 feet). There are eight Chinese characters on the sword “越王鸠潜，自乍用剑" (yuè wáng jiū qián, zìzhà yòng jiàn), which means that this sword is belong to King Goujian of Yue.

珠 (pearl) 称 (called) 夜光 (YeQuang)。

The most famous pearls are known as 夜光 yè guāng or “Gleam of the Night”. (夜 is night 光 is bright). Nathan Sturman wrote that the “Gleam of the Night” was a legendary pearl which was once the eye of a whale and also referred to as 明月珠 míngyuèzhū “Bright Moon-Pearl”.

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"From Clouds to Rain, from Dew to Frost" - Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Line 5

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云腾致雨, 露结为霜。
yún téng zhì yǔ, lù jié wèi shuāng。


云 (clouds) 腾 (rise) 致 (cause) 雨 (rain),

When clouds rise and meet the colder atmosphere, condensation will take place and this will result in rain. This is a succinct and very clear explanation of how rain is formed considering this is written in only the 5th century.


露 (dew) 结 (form) 为 (become) 霜 (frost)。

Dew drops crystallize to become frost. Evelyn Lip added that ‘When water crystallizes in an area and appears as frost in the late autumn morning, it is called 早霜 zǎoshuāng (early frost). But if it appears in spring, it is called 晚霜 wǎnshuāng (late frost).'

"The Sky is black, the Earth is Yellow & the Universe is Vast" - Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Line 1

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天地玄黄, 宇宙洪荒。
tiāndì xuánhuáng, yǔzhòu hónghuāng。


天 (sky) 地 (earth) 玄 (black) 黄 (yellow)

This has been interpreted as the sky is black and the earth yellow. It is interesting to note that 天地 also means heaven and earth and that 玄黄 can also mean the same thing. 玄黄 can also mean dark yellow. 天地玄黄 was changed to 天地远黄 in the Qing dynasty when 玄 was changed to 远 yuǎn out of respect to the Qing emperor 玄桦 Xuánhuà.

宇宙 (universe) 洪 (vast) 荒 (desolate)

Evelyn Lip said that in ancient writings such as the Huai Nan zi 淮南子, “宇 refers to everything around, above and below while 宙 represents both the past and present. In other words, the universe encompasses everything, ever-changing and fluctuating”. 洪荒 together also means primordial time. Thus, in the beginning the universe was created out of a vast, chaotic state.

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1000 Character Classic 千字文 – Introduction.

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The Thousand Character Classic (千字文) was composed by 周兴嗣 Zhōu Xìngsì in the Liang Dynasty (梁朝; Liáng cháo) (502-557). He was ordered by Emperor Liang Wu 梁武帝 Liáng Wǔdì to copy a thousand unique characters* from the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi 王羲之, (303–361) who is referred to as the Sage of Calligraphy 书圣 shūshèng for the purpose of educating his son.

Zhou shuffled 1000 characters from Wang’s work into 4 characters rhymed text composing 8 characters in a line. The character used are never repeated in this poem or essay. It is said that Zhou did the exacting task in only one night and the supreme effort turned his hair white the next morning. Thus, it became China’s earliest and most widely used basic literary text.

In accordance my effort to study Mandarin, I’ll be analyzing the Thousand Character Classic (千字文) by going through these 1000 characters according to their 8 x 125 lines. In this, I will draw from these sources –

Essay of One Thousand Characters (book) – translation by Peng Fasheng.
1000 Character Classic (book) – translation by Evelyn Lip.
The Thousand Character Essay (online article) – translation by Nathan Sturman.

Information from Wikipedia.

Different researches break down the 1000 characters into different sections. Peng Fasheng for example breaks them down into 4 parts. Part I (line 1 – 18) “outlines cosmological process and cultural revolution”. Part II (line 19-51) “dwells upon personal upbringing and moral virtues”. Part III (line 52 – 82) “surveys the administrative affairs of the noble classes and the vast territory of the empire.” Part IV (line 83 – 99)” narrates the pastoral life of tcommon people and technical prowess of craftsmen.” He singled out the last line as without substantial meaning. Nathan on the other hand just breaks them down into 7 separate chapters without an explanation. He just mentioned that – “The seven chapters deals with aspects of the world, nature, history, geography, society, and individual conduct while presenting, for practice, a basic set of characters at the core of the moral and intellectual world view of traditional China.”

It is generally quoted that one needs to memorize 3000 characters to have a reasonable grasp of Mandarin. As I always like to make my learning an experience and journey instead of a just mechanical act of repetition, I choose to learn 1000 of these characters through the Thousand Character Classic (千字文). As they said, the start of a long journey begins with the first character but it doesn’t have to start with 一 (yí).

(*In classic Chinese, the characters were not repeated. However, in conversion to simplified Chinese a few characters were duplicated but the meanings are different.)

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