The Sea
1
Of old, under Emperor Gui,
In the era of the great Tang,
Heaven's guiderope began to froth and foam,
Causing blight, bringing on disease
Giant breakers spread and sprawled
A myriad miles, without bound;
Long swells rolled and tossed,
Streaming and stretching into the eight marches.
And then Yu
Pared mounds and hills overlooking the banks,
Breached dikes and ponds allowing the water to drain,
Opened Dragon Gate, jaggedly jutting,
Broke open hills and peaks, chiseling and boring through.
Once the massing mountains had been demarcated,
And the hundred streams were dispersed underground,
Broad and boundless, calm and clear,
The leaping waves sped off with the current.
When the Jiang and the He had been channeled,
Through a myriad crevices all the waters began to flow,
Leaving the Five Peaks pushing and poking upward,
The Nine Continents drained and dried.
Dribbling droplets, soaking waters,
Dense and dark as clouds and fog;
Burbling streams trickling and trilling,
None failed to come pouring in
Oh, this vast numinous sea,
Long has it received and transported!
Such breadth,
Such wonderment,
All befit its greatness!
2
And such is its form:
Flooding and flowing, tossing and tumbling,
It floats the sky, shoreless,
Surging and swelling, profoundly plunging,
Remotely ranging, distantly distended;
Waves like serried mountains,
Now joined, now scattered;
Inhaling and exhaling the hundred rivers,
Cleaning and clearing the Huai and Han;
Engulfing broad salt flats,
Mingling and merging far and wide.
Now when
The Grand Luminary turns its reins toward the Metallic Pivot grotto,
And Soaring Brightness swiftly speeds from Fusang's ford,
Tossing sand and swashing against rocks
The wind rages and roars on island beaches
And then roused to fury,
Welling waves heave and foam,
Clashing and colliding with one another,
Scattering spray, lifting breakers.
Their form is like the wheels of Heaven,
Revolving and rotating, furiously turning;
Or like the axles of earth,
Thrusting, pushing, vehemently spinning
Their ridges and crests soar on high, then falter and fall,
Like the Five Peaks swaying and swirling, pounding one upon another.
Wildly they surge and sink, piled and packed together;
Swollen, they dash and dart, crest and collapse
Whirling and twirling, they form raging troughs;
Combing and rolling, they jet into pointed peaks
Swiftly, riffles and ripples popple on the sides,
While the giants, merging and melding, clash with one another
Startled waves thunderously race,
Stampeding waters scatter and gather again:
They open and close, dissolve and merge,
Spurting and spouting, shaking and shuddering,
Spreading and sprawling, crowded and cramped,
Frothing and foaming, pitching and plunging.
3
Then when
Dust clouds and dark skies recede and dissolve,
Nothing moves, nothing stirs,
And the lightest dust does not fly,
Nor the tenderest vines quiver.
Still gaping and gulping,
Remnant waves continue their solitary heaving,
Swelling and surging, steep and tall,
Jaggedly jutting like mounts and hills.
Further, branches and forks, spuming and seething,
Turbulent and tempestuous, form tributaries.
They divide us from the Man, separate us from the Yi,
And wind one after another for ten thousand miles.
If then
Border wastes must see swift report,
The royal command must be quickly proclaimed,
They gallop fleet steeds, ply their sweeps,
The cross the sea or scale mountains.
And then,
They await a strong wind,
Hoist the hundred-foot,
Secure long yards,
Hang sails and sheets.
Watching the waves, they depart for afar,
Glistening brightly, gliding like a soaring bird,
Swift as a startled duck lost from its mate,
Sudden as if drawn by six dragons.
At once they cover three thousand miles,
Before morning's end they reach their destination.
4
But if a man
Approaches the deep laden with sin,
Swearing empty oaths, uttering false prayers,
Then sea elves block his way,
Horse-swallowers impede his path,
Tianwu suddenly appears, dimly descried,
Wangxiang briefly shows himself, a fleeting specter.
A host of demons meets and confronts him,
Glaring and glowering, beguiling and bewitching.
Tearing the sails, splitting the mast,
Fierce winds begin their dreadful destruction.
All is opened wide, as if transformed by spirits,
Then turns dark and dim, like sombrous dusk
Their breath, like heavenly vapors,
Misty and murky, spreads like clouds
Fleeting and flashing, like streaking lightning,
A hundred hues weirdly appear,
Spewing and spuming, pale and pallid,
Flickering and fluttering without measure.
Surging billows grind together,
Their turbulent forces colliding.
Like crumbling clouds, spattering rain,
Swashing and splashing,
Wambling and wobbling, advancing and retreating,
Sputtering and spouting, flowing and flooding,
Pitching and plunging, rolling and tossing,
Sweeping the clouds, dousing the sun.
5
And then
Sailors and fishermen
Travel south and to the extreme east
Some are smashed and drowned in caverns of turtles and alligators,
Some are hung and caught on jagged reefs,
Some are hauled and dragged to the realm of naked men,
Some drift and float to the land of Black Teeth men,
Some glide like duckweed, scudding and whirling along,
Some following the homing winds, return on their own
They only know how frightful were the wonders they saw,
And are oblivious of whether the places they passed were near or far.
But these are the general limits:
South it soaks the Vermeil Shore,
North waters the Heavenly Barrens,
East extends to Split Wood,
West pushes upon Qing and Xu
The area it spans, dim and distant,
Stretches ten-ten-thousand leagues and more
It spouts clouds and rainbows,
Enfolds dragons and fish,
Hides the scaly kun ,
Conceals spirit dwellings.
How does it only collect.
Tai Dian's precious cowry,
Or Lord Sui's luminous pearl?
Could it be that one frequently hears of things collected by the world,
While those unnamed seem nonexistent?
Moreover, for things rarely heard of in this world,
How can one discern their names?
Thus, one can only vaguely visualize their features
Dimly depict their forms.
6
Now,
Within their watery respository,
And the courts of their unplumbed depths,
There are lofty islands borne by giant turtles,
Tall and towering, standing alone,
Cleaving the giant waves,
Pointing to Grand Clarity,
Thrusting mighty boulders,
Roosts for a hundred numina.
When the Balmy Breeze rises, southward they travel;
When the Broad Blast arrives, northward they journey
Within their shores there are:
Natural jewels, aquatic wonders,
Houses of the mermen,
The eery shimmer of scarlet stones,
The strange essence of scale and shell
And now,
A cloudy brocade spreads a pattern along sandy shores,
A gauzy gossamer casts luster over the seams of mussels and snails.
Manifold colors brandish their splendor,
A myriad hues conceal their brilliance:
Sunlit ice that does not melt,
Shadowy fires burning underwater;
Glowing coals that rekindle themselves,
Casting their fulgor into the Nine Springs;
Vermilion flames, green smoke,
Dark and dense, curling and swirling upward.
7
Of fish
There is the sea-spanning whale,
Looming lordly, swimming alone,
Leveling cragged peaks,
Toppling tall breakers,
Devouring the scaled and shelled,
Swallowing dragon boats
He sucks in waves and giant rollers mass and merge;
He blows out billows and the hundred streams backward flow
If perchance he flounces and flounders in spent waves,
And beached dies on salty flats,
His giant scales shall pierce the clouds,
His dorsal fins shall prick the sky,
The bones of his skull will form peaks,
And his oozing oil will become ponds.
8
Now,
In bights of cragged isles,
Shelves of sand and stone,
The winged and feathered engender their chicks,
Breaking the eggs to bring young birds to life.
Ducklings, fluffy and flossy,
Baby, cranes, sleek and silky,
Flying in flocks, bathing in pairs,
Play in the openings, float on the deeps.
Like hovering fog they soar aloft,
Gliding gracefully in a steady stream
Their fluttering motion creates thunder,
Their thrumming wings become a grove
Back and forth they screech and squawk,
Wondrously hued, unique in voice.
9
And then,
When the three luminaries shine clear,
Heaven and Earth glow and gleam,
Without drifting on Lord Yang's billows,
One may ride his arches and break away,
To view Anqi on Penglai,
See the Lord's image on Mount Qiao.
A host of immortals, distantly descried,
Feast on jade by pristine shores,
Walk in sandals left at Fuxiang,
Dress in plumes and pinions, dangling and drooping.
They soar to the pond of Heaven,
Play in the barren murk.
Though revealing their forms, they have no desires;
Forever and ever, eternally they live.
10
Further, as for the sea's capacities:
It embraces Donator's mysteries,
Enfolds Receptor's realm.
The gods here reside,
Also spirits here dwell
What wonder does it not have?
What marvel does it not store?
Broad and boundless, this accumulation of streams!
Though receiving their forms, empty within it remains
Vast indeed the Abysmal's power!
In lowness it makes its abode.
Enlarging what goes forth, accepting what comes in,
It is the grand eminence, the metropolis
Of the assorted things and living species,
What does it have, what does it not?
Of old, under Emperor Gui,
In the era of the great Tang,
Heaven's guiderope began to froth and foam,
Causing blight, bringing on disease
Giant breakers spread and sprawled
A myriad miles, without bound;
Long swells rolled and tossed,
Streaming and stretching into the eight marches.
And then Yu
Pared mounds and hills overlooking the banks,
Breached dikes and ponds allowing the water to drain,
Opened Dragon Gate, jaggedly jutting,
Broke open hills and peaks, chiseling and boring through.
Once the massing mountains had been demarcated,
And the hundred streams were dispersed underground,
Broad and boundless, calm and clear,
The leaping waves sped off with the current.
When the Jiang and the He had been channeled,
Through a myriad crevices all the waters began to flow,
Leaving the Five Peaks pushing and poking upward,
The Nine Continents drained and dried.
Dribbling droplets, soaking waters,
Dense and dark as clouds and fog;
Burbling streams trickling and trilling,
None failed to come pouring in
Oh, this vast numinous sea,
Long has it received and transported!
Such breadth,
Such wonderment,
All befit its greatness!
2
And such is its form:
Flooding and flowing, tossing and tumbling,
It floats the sky, shoreless,
Surging and swelling, profoundly plunging,
Remotely ranging, distantly distended;
Waves like serried mountains,
Now joined, now scattered;
Inhaling and exhaling the hundred rivers,
Cleaning and clearing the Huai and Han;
Engulfing broad salt flats,
Mingling and merging far and wide.
Now when
The Grand Luminary turns its reins toward the Metallic Pivot grotto,
And Soaring Brightness swiftly speeds from Fusang's ford,
Tossing sand and swashing against rocks
The wind rages and roars on island beaches
And then roused to fury,
Welling waves heave and foam,
Clashing and colliding with one another,
Scattering spray, lifting breakers.
Their form is like the wheels of Heaven,
Revolving and rotating, furiously turning;
Or like the axles of earth,
Thrusting, pushing, vehemently spinning
Their ridges and crests soar on high, then falter and fall,
Like the Five Peaks swaying and swirling, pounding one upon another.
Wildly they surge and sink, piled and packed together;
Swollen, they dash and dart, crest and collapse
Whirling and twirling, they form raging troughs;
Combing and rolling, they jet into pointed peaks
Swiftly, riffles and ripples popple on the sides,
While the giants, merging and melding, clash with one another
Startled waves thunderously race,
Stampeding waters scatter and gather again:
They open and close, dissolve and merge,
Spurting and spouting, shaking and shuddering,
Spreading and sprawling, crowded and cramped,
Frothing and foaming, pitching and plunging.
3
Then when
Dust clouds and dark skies recede and dissolve,
Nothing moves, nothing stirs,
And the lightest dust does not fly,
Nor the tenderest vines quiver.
Still gaping and gulping,
Remnant waves continue their solitary heaving,
Swelling and surging, steep and tall,
Jaggedly jutting like mounts and hills.
Further, branches and forks, spuming and seething,
Turbulent and tempestuous, form tributaries.
They divide us from the Man, separate us from the Yi,
And wind one after another for ten thousand miles.
If then
Border wastes must see swift report,
The royal command must be quickly proclaimed,
They gallop fleet steeds, ply their sweeps,
The cross the sea or scale mountains.
And then,
They await a strong wind,
Hoist the hundred-foot,
Secure long yards,
Hang sails and sheets.
Watching the waves, they depart for afar,
Glistening brightly, gliding like a soaring bird,
Swift as a startled duck lost from its mate,
Sudden as if drawn by six dragons.
At once they cover three thousand miles,
Before morning's end they reach their destination.
4
But if a man
Approaches the deep laden with sin,
Swearing empty oaths, uttering false prayers,
Then sea elves block his way,
Horse-swallowers impede his path,
Tianwu suddenly appears, dimly descried,
Wangxiang briefly shows himself, a fleeting specter.
A host of demons meets and confronts him,
Glaring and glowering, beguiling and bewitching.
Tearing the sails, splitting the mast,
Fierce winds begin their dreadful destruction.
All is opened wide, as if transformed by spirits,
Then turns dark and dim, like sombrous dusk
Their breath, like heavenly vapors,
Misty and murky, spreads like clouds
Fleeting and flashing, like streaking lightning,
A hundred hues weirdly appear,
Spewing and spuming, pale and pallid,
Flickering and fluttering without measure.
Surging billows grind together,
Their turbulent forces colliding.
Like crumbling clouds, spattering rain,
Swashing and splashing,
Wambling and wobbling, advancing and retreating,
Sputtering and spouting, flowing and flooding,
Pitching and plunging, rolling and tossing,
Sweeping the clouds, dousing the sun.
5
And then
Sailors and fishermen
Travel south and to the extreme east
Some are smashed and drowned in caverns of turtles and alligators,
Some are hung and caught on jagged reefs,
Some are hauled and dragged to the realm of naked men,
Some drift and float to the land of Black Teeth men,
Some glide like duckweed, scudding and whirling along,
Some following the homing winds, return on their own
They only know how frightful were the wonders they saw,
And are oblivious of whether the places they passed were near or far.
But these are the general limits:
South it soaks the Vermeil Shore,
North waters the Heavenly Barrens,
East extends to Split Wood,
West pushes upon Qing and Xu
The area it spans, dim and distant,
Stretches ten-ten-thousand leagues and more
It spouts clouds and rainbows,
Enfolds dragons and fish,
Hides the scaly kun ,
Conceals spirit dwellings.
How does it only collect.
Tai Dian's precious cowry,
Or Lord Sui's luminous pearl?
Could it be that one frequently hears of things collected by the world,
While those unnamed seem nonexistent?
Moreover, for things rarely heard of in this world,
How can one discern their names?
Thus, one can only vaguely visualize their features
Dimly depict their forms.
6
Now,
Within their watery respository,
And the courts of their unplumbed depths,
There are lofty islands borne by giant turtles,
Tall and towering, standing alone,
Cleaving the giant waves,
Pointing to Grand Clarity,
Thrusting mighty boulders,
Roosts for a hundred numina.
When the Balmy Breeze rises, southward they travel;
When the Broad Blast arrives, northward they journey
Within their shores there are:
Natural jewels, aquatic wonders,
Houses of the mermen,
The eery shimmer of scarlet stones,
The strange essence of scale and shell
And now,
A cloudy brocade spreads a pattern along sandy shores,
A gauzy gossamer casts luster over the seams of mussels and snails.
Manifold colors brandish their splendor,
A myriad hues conceal their brilliance:
Sunlit ice that does not melt,
Shadowy fires burning underwater;
Glowing coals that rekindle themselves,
Casting their fulgor into the Nine Springs;
Vermilion flames, green smoke,
Dark and dense, curling and swirling upward.
7
Of fish
There is the sea-spanning whale,
Looming lordly, swimming alone,
Leveling cragged peaks,
Toppling tall breakers,
Devouring the scaled and shelled,
Swallowing dragon boats
He sucks in waves and giant rollers mass and merge;
He blows out billows and the hundred streams backward flow
If perchance he flounces and flounders in spent waves,
And beached dies on salty flats,
His giant scales shall pierce the clouds,
His dorsal fins shall prick the sky,
The bones of his skull will form peaks,
And his oozing oil will become ponds.
8
Now,
In bights of cragged isles,
Shelves of sand and stone,
The winged and feathered engender their chicks,
Breaking the eggs to bring young birds to life.
Ducklings, fluffy and flossy,
Baby, cranes, sleek and silky,
Flying in flocks, bathing in pairs,
Play in the openings, float on the deeps.
Like hovering fog they soar aloft,
Gliding gracefully in a steady stream
Their fluttering motion creates thunder,
Their thrumming wings become a grove
Back and forth they screech and squawk,
Wondrously hued, unique in voice.
9
And then,
When the three luminaries shine clear,
Heaven and Earth glow and gleam,
Without drifting on Lord Yang's billows,
One may ride his arches and break away,
To view Anqi on Penglai,
See the Lord's image on Mount Qiao.
A host of immortals, distantly descried,
Feast on jade by pristine shores,
Walk in sandals left at Fuxiang,
Dress in plumes and pinions, dangling and drooping.
They soar to the pond of Heaven,
Play in the barren murk.
Though revealing their forms, they have no desires;
Forever and ever, eternally they live.
10
Further, as for the sea's capacities:
It embraces Donator's mysteries,
Enfolds Receptor's realm.
The gods here reside,
Also spirits here dwell
What wonder does it not have?
What marvel does it not store?
Broad and boundless, this accumulation of streams!
Though receiving their forms, empty within it remains
Vast indeed the Abysmal's power!
In lowness it makes its abode.
Enlarging what goes forth, accepting what comes in,
It is the grand eminence, the metropolis
Of the assorted things and living species,
What does it have, what does it not?
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