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87 C H A P T E R F O U R The Realm of Shaman Peng Floral Imagery in the Li sao Despite its extensive use in the poem, no one has ever convincingly explained the floral imagery of the Li sao. Traditional commentators, in the train of Wang Yi, reasonably assume that the fragrant plants stand for virtue, and the malodorous ones, its opposite. That notwithstanding, a rich tradition of disagreement over botanical identification and symbolism developed after Hong Xingzu published his supplements to Wang Yi’s minimal information. A subtradition that may have begun before Wang Yi, but is always traced back to him, takes at least two of the flower names, lan 蘭 and jiao 椒, as abbreviations of the names of quasi-historical persons.1 Support for this belief is the sudden attribution of human qualities to these and certain other flowers later in the poem (lines 313‒320). It is probable that the poet had particular persons in mind, but no one, including Wang Yi, has offered persuasive evidence as to who they were. Surprisingly little attention has been paid as to how the rhetorical uses of plant imagery in other ancient Chinese works, especially the poetic and philosophical literature of the Warring States period, might have influenced the Li sao. Since so few of the plants in the poem figure elsewhere, this is understandable to a degree; however, texts written close to the time of Qu Yuan provide enough evidence to explain at least one important floral image in the poem—the lan 蘭. Understanding the figurative uses of this plant provides a key to the general rhetoric of plant images in the Li sao. I will, therefore, take what the texts tell us about it as a point of departure. The word lan is usually translated as orchid because the word in modern Chinese usage is applied to that flower. Anciently, however, lan was the name of what is known in scientific Latin as eupatorium japonicum or chinense, or in English, less euphoniously, as thoroughwort or boneset.2 88 The Shaman and the Heresiarch In the Nine Songs hymns,the lan is one of the flowers used to attract spirits. In the hymn “The Lesser Controller of Fates,”the qiulan 秋蘭,or autumn thoroughwort , is planted around the spirit shrine.3 It also provides the raw material for things that the descended spirits use, such as the thoroughwort flags in “Xiang Jun”and the thoroughwort mats in “Donghuang Taiyi.”4 Thoroughwort in fact had medicinal uses, such as the treatment of arthritis, influenza, and malaria. It was used to kill insects and its strong fragrance was thought to avert evil influences. It was also used as a kind of soap; the shaman preparing herself to receive the spirit in the hymn “Lord of the Clouds” bathes in a hot infusion of it.The thoroughwort purified both practically and ritually.5 The plant became a symbol of virtue, for the influence of a virtuous person was thought to purify morally in the same way that the herb was thought to purify ritually and medicinally. An example of this use of the thoroughwort image can be found in the Xunzi 荀子, in a quotation attributed to Confucius in which he admits that he is not recognized despite his merits: Men of wide learning and deep counsel whose time does not come are many. . . . Am I the only one? The zhilan [the thoroughwort that produces a fragrant root] grows deep in the forest. Just because there is no one there to smell it does not mean that it is not fragrant.6 Here Confucius evokes the thoroughwort hidden in the forest (youlan 幽蘭) as metaphor for himself and his unrecognized abilities. In a Han poem, “Chen jiang 沈江 (Drowning in the River),” from the Qi Jian 七諫 (Seven Remonstrances ) section of the Chu ci, the same metaphor is used to describe Qu Yuan: “The lanzhi [thoroughwort and its root] was hidden but still fragrant (lanzhi yu er yu fang 蘭芷幽而有芳)”(Many scholars mistakenly take lan and zhi 芷 as two separate plants.See below.) These lines allude to lines 209‒10 of the Li sao where Zhengze Ling Jun,reverting to the masculinity of Zhengze,the possessing spirit, ascends to the gate of Heaven only to be denied entry.There he laments: 時曖曖其將罷兮結幽蘭而延佇 Hours darkened closing the day, But knotting the hidden thoroughwort I waited a long time. The knotting in this case, as in most cases of knotting and twining in the Li sao, is...

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