Part 1

— The prince's story can be found in Ch'u Tzu: Songs of the South in David Hawkes' translation (Oxford University Press), p.119.

— THINKING of the mountain-grass broom I had bought from the man with the broken arm in one of the several villages called Baisha. As it was quite cumbersome, I had left it behind to pick up again later on. Somehow this turned out to be impossible and so I had to leave China without it.

— Driving from Qiao Tou to Tiger Leaping Gorge, I read this on a sheet of paper pasted onto the seat of the minibus:

Travelling the ancient track of Lijiang
Tasting the Naxi Yin wine
Trekking along the Tea-Horse Road
Drinking the Magnotou Liquor

Jade Dragon Snow Mt. (5596m.) and Haba Mt. (5396m.). Jade Dragon Snow Mountain has 13 snow-covered peaks.

— Halfway between upper and middle gorge are several waterfalls crashing down from Haba Mt. into the Yangtze below as well as the site called full stars. The lonely, towering form is that of the woman turned to stone in Su Tung-po's poem The Husband Watching Height. He wrote it in 1051.

— White Face Peak: a sheer wall of smudged grayish white lime concretions without the least trace of vegetation. Will someone who has been grieving for a very long time eventually look like this?

— This was 'Woody's Château' which we were glad to reach!

— the tomb of some unfortunate princess recalls that of Princess Yongtai of the imperial family; she died in 701 at the age of 19 in childbirth. Another version says that she was flogged to death or hanged herself at the command of her grandmother, the Empress Wu, because of some reported remark. After the Empress' death, Yongtai's father, who ascended the throne, gave his daughter (and her husband who had died with her) a grand burial. When her tomb was discovered a few miles northwest of Xian, it contained a host of ceramic figurines, 777 in all, soldiers, servants, hunters and courtiers, as well as camels and horses.

— In the Han period tomb of Prince Liu Sheng and his consort Dou Wan (2nd cent. B.C.), the corpses discovered were encased from head to foot in whole suits composed of over 2000 plaques of jade, sewn together with gold thread.

— At Shigu along the first bend of the Yangtze River hangs a big stone drum commemorating a Sino-Naxi victory over the Tibetans in 1548.

— The Upper Yangtze or Jin Sha (Gold Sand River) is so low here in spring, that it reveals a wide sandbank in midstream on which K. and R. really enjoyed themselves!

— miracle lake: In 1996 an earthquake not only destroyed sections of Dayan (Old Lijiang), taking several lives, but here in the gorge caused an entire mountainside to slide down into the Jin Sha, creating a lake full of trapped fish. People from nearby Daju remember the miraculous catch … as does R., our Tibetan guide, who told us the story.

— The 'new ferry' on which we were to cross the Yangtze turned out to be what singularly looked like a partly-deflated and patched-up tire with a single set of oars. One man rowed, while the other watched for currents as well as whirlpools to be avoided at all cost. The 'landing' was a set of boulders scattered along the narrow embankment, such as those we had set out from. Nothing to intimidate an experienced traveller!

 

Part 2

— On the way from Baisha Village to Yulong Cha Shang (Jade Dragon Snow Mt.), K. stopped to sketch and attracted a small crowd. Comments and laughter while a red sweater got knitted.

— The phoenix is said to have 365 feathers, one for each day of the year.

— Po Chü-I (772 - 846) wrote a poem called After Lunch :

After lunch – one short nap;
On waking up – two cups of tea
Raising my head, I see the sun's light
Once again slanting towards the South-West
Those who are happy regret the shortness of the day;
Those who are sad tire of the year's sloth
But those whose hearts are devoid of joy or sadness
Just go on living, regardless of "short" or "long".

(Arthur Waley's translation)

— full box village is Daju were everything grows on a lovely wide plateau surrounded by a mountain range. We'd call it 'horn of plenty'.

— From the Western Hills, south of Kunming, we had a fine view of Dian Lake on which nothing stirs it is so polluted.

— Near Geju ('Tin City'), where K. sketched a very peaceful village scene down below the road; it took some time before I realized that the white worms were people carrying huge white packs uphill.

— On March 20, we learned from Ma, our guide, that the U.S. army had invaded Iraq.
Recalling Li Ching-chao's tzu poem that begins with There are fragrant plants in the pond! In the deep green shade of the garden... (K. Rexroth's translation).

— The Zhu family grew rich by trading in many goods, including opium, but mainly tin. We stayed in this beautiful mansion several nights. The courtyards especially were very fine and there were so many of them that I didn't even attempt a count.

— … the pomegranate is the symbol of Jianshui.

— The Hemerocallis or day lilies of my garden patch were also called in China the sorrow-forgotten flowers.

Copyright © Karin Lessing, 2004.