Qian Qianyi's Reflections on Yellow Mountain: Traces of a Late-Ming Hatchet and Chisel

5. Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain

98 Qian Qianyi’s Reflections on Yellow Mountain Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain by Qian Qianyi (1582–1664) 5 Translator’s Note My translation of “You Huangshan ji” below takes the version of the text found in the SBCK edition of the Muzhai chuxueji as its principal authority, and refers to alternative versions using the following abbreviations (for a full analysis of the text and its various versions, see appendices): SBCK: Muzhai chuxueji 牧齋初學集, SBCK 四部叢刊 edition (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan). SHZ: Muzhai chuxueji 牧齋初學集, Suihanzhai 邃漢齋 edition (Shanghai: Wenming shuju, 1910). QZL: Qian Zhonglian 錢仲聯 ed., Qian Muzhai quanji 錢牧齋全集 (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 2003). HM: Huangshan zhi 黃山志 (1667), Hongmei 弘眉 comp. (rpt.; Beijing: Xianzhuang shuju, 2004). MLS: Huangshan zhi dingben 黃山志定本 (1686), Min Linsi 閔麟嗣 comp. (rpt.; Shanghai: Anhui congshu bianyinchu, 1935). LYM: Li Yimang 李一氓 ed., Ming Qing ren you Huangshan jichao 明清人遊 黃山記鈔 (Hefei: Anhui renmin chubanshe, 1983). WKQ: Wang Keqian 王克謙 ed., Lidai Huangshan youji xuan 歷代黃山遊記選 (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 1988). BYC: Bei Yunchen 貝運辰 ed., Lidai youji xuan 歷代遊記選 (Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe, 1980). Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain 99 NQX: Ni Qixin 倪其心 ed., Zhongguo gudai youji xuan 中國古代遊記選 (Beijing: Zhongguo youji chubanshe, 1985). LQS: Huangshan zhi 黃山志 (1988), Lü Qiushan 呂秋山 et al. comp. (Hefei: Huangshan shushe). For the convenience of the reader, those who appear in the essay identified by literary names or other sobriquets have been rendered where possible into their original names (ming 名). Topographical and historical information on Yellow Mountain landmarks and sights that is not directly relevant to the essay is referenced to one or more of the most useful and accessible sources as follows: 《定本》 Min Linsi 閔麟嗣 ed., Huangshan zhi dingben 黃山志定本, 1686 ed. (rpt.; Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 1990). 《新志》 Lü Qiushan 呂秋山 et al. ed., Huangshan zhi 黃山志 (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 1988). 《導遊》 Huang Songlin 黃松林, Huangshan daoyou daquan 黃山導遊大全 (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 1993). 《文化》 Li Jiahong 李家宏 ed., Huangshan lüyou wenhua da cidian 黃山旅遊 文化大辭典 (Hefei: Zhongguo kexue jishu daxue chubanshe, 1994). The process of translation is inevitably one of compromise. Breaking through the endless codes culturels on which the classical Chinese essay is based, while retaining the style of the original text, is a goal that frequently appears far out of reach. For the purposes of the present study it is essential that Chinese characters, along with detailed textual and background information, accompany the text, and my annotations are therefore necessarily dense. However, lest reading Qian Qianyi should become “like viewing Flemish tapestries from the wrong side,” it has also been my objective to produce a translation that provides for the English reader a sense of the elegance of the original essay.1 To this end, while detailed comments intended for the specialist and germane to the study as a whole are provided as notes, it should also be possible for the non-specialist to read through the essay unhindered by scholarly appendages. In keeping with the intertextual nature of the original essay I have tried where appropriate to incorporate into my text existing translations of the classics by scholars such as James Legge (1815–97), although this has not always been possible. Although my rendering still founders far from John Minford’s Atlantis, “where Chinese aristocrats converse in the Queen’s English, Latin and French, while their servants swear in Cockney,” I hope that the voice of Qian Qianyi, however muffled, might still make itself heard.2 100 Qian Qianyi’s Reflections on Yellow Mountain Preface In the spring of the xinsi year [1641], Cheng Jiasui and I planned to make a trip to Yellow Mountain,1 arranging to meet at Western Creek in Hangzhou when the flowering plum blossoms came out.2 When a month had passed with Jiasui still not having arrived, I found that I had matters to attend to at White Mount,3 and my passion for the Yellow Mountain trip abated somewhat. It was a letter from Xu Zhiyuan that came to rouse me again4 — having read it my arms wanted to stretch out and take flight, Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain 游黃山記 by Qian Qianyi 錢謙益 (1582–1664) 1 余與程孟陽訂黃山之游 For biographical treatments of Cheng Jiasui 程嘉燧 see: ECCP, pp. 113– 4; Huangshan zhi dingben, pp. 94–5, and Liechao shiji xiaozhuan, Volume 2, pp. 576–9. The works of Cheng and Li Liufang 李流芳 (zi Zhangheng 長蘅, hao Xianghai 香海; 1575–1629) are the subjects of a brief discussion and comparison (including plates) in Cahill ed., Shadows of Mt. Huang, pp. 62–6. For a discussion of Cheng’s proposed participation in the trip, see Chapter Four. 2...