天馬千匹 The Thousand Heavenly Horses
逐句解 Line by line
Flame-Bay and Thoroughbred,
What follows is a roll-call of the most celebrated horses in Chinese writing, two to a line. 驊騮 is a flame-red courser; 騏驥 is the thoroughbred of "thousand-lǐ" fame — the 千里馬, the horse that covers a thousand lǐ in a day, and still the standard Chinese figure for outstanding talent waiting to be spotted.
Green-Ears and Xiānlí;
騄駬 — also written 綠耳, "Green-Ears" — is one of King Mu of Zhou's eight coursers, the most famous team of horses in Chinese legend. 纖離 is a celebrated steed named in the 楚辭, the Songs of Chu.
Dragon-Sire and Purple Swallow,
龍媒 is the "dragon-consort," a horse thought to draw dragon-kin to it; 紫燕, "Purple Swallow," is a byword for speed.
Wing-Tucker and Sùshuāng;
挾翼, "Wing-Tucker," is another of King Mu's eight. 驌驦 (also written 鷫鷞) is a further celebrated steed.
Juétí and Silver-Gé,
駃騠 (jué tí) is a superior breed said to outrun its own mother on the day it is foaled. In 銀騔 the character 騔 is read gé, following Unihan.
Yǎoniǎo and Flying Yellow;
騕褭 (yǎo niǎo) is a legendary fast horse; 飛黃, "Flying Yellow," a divine steed whose appearance counts as a good omen.
Táotú and Wing-Overturner,
騊駼 (táo tú) is a wild horse of the northern steppe; 翻羽, "Wing-Overturner," is another of the eight.
Red Hare and Light-Outrunner;
赤兔, "Red Hare," is the most famous warhorse in Chinese literature — Lü Bu's mount, afterwards Guan Yu's, known to everyone who has read the Three Kingdoms. 超光, "Light-Outrunner," is another of the eight.
Radiance-Surpasser and Shadow-Spanner,
踰輝, "Radiance-Surpasser," one of the eight, paired with 彌景, "Shadow-Spanner."
Mist-Mounter and Surpassing-Yellow;
騰霧, "Mist-Mounter," one of the eight, paired with 勝黃.
Wind-Chaser and Earth-Spurner,
追風, "Wind-Chaser," and 絕地, "Earth-Spurner," another of the eight — names that turn plain motion into boasting.
Flying Pinion and Empyrean-Dasher;
奔霄, "Empyrean-Dasher," is another of King Mu's eight. Its partner is where the text turns interesting. The 世德堂本 prints 飛𦑭, and the character 𦑭 carries no reading whatsoever in the standard dictionaries. Scholars agree it is a centuries-old miscutting — a 訛字, a corrupt character — of 翮 (hé), a quill-feather or pinion, giving 飛翮, "Flying Pinion." This edition keeps what the block-cutters actually cut, and reads it hé.
Drifting-Free and Red Lightning,
逸飄, "Drifting-Free," and 赤電, "Red Lightning," a steed of Han Gaozu.
Bronze Sparrow and Floating Cloud;
銅爵 (the same as 銅雀, "Bronze Sparrow") and 浮雲, "Floating Cloud," a steed of Emperor Wen of Han.
Dapple-Roan and Tiger-Lā,
虎𩤲 — the second brother's mount — carries the rare character 𩤲, attested only as lā. This edition keeps the transmitted character rather than substituting a look-alike.
Dust-Outstripper and Purple-Scale; …
絕塵, "Dust-Outstripper," and 紫鱗, "Purple-Scale." The row of dots marks the list cut short — many more names stand implied behind it.
the steeds of the Four Poles and of Ferghana, the Eight Coursers and the Nine Racers, peerless among the thousand-li horses.
The catalogue closes on collective names. 大宛 (dà yuān) is Ferghana, in Central Asia, the source of the "blood-sweating" heavenly horses that Han emperors sent armies to obtain; the 八駿 are King Mu's eight and the 九逸 the "nine racers" — all of them 千里絕群, peerless over a thousand lǐ.
Steeds such as these —
此等良馬, "steeds such as these," runs up to the closing couplet.
every one of them, snorting at the wind and chasing the lightning, robust in spirit,
In 一個個 the 一 takes yí before the falling tone of 個. 嘶風逐電 is "snorting at the wind, chasing the lightning."
treading the mist and mounting the cloud, long in strength.
In 氣力長 the 長 is cháng, "long, enduring." The poem ends on the horses' tireless strength — which is the point, since the man about to be handed a broom and a bucket has just called himself Equal to Heaven.
The horse poem is a display of learning as much as of horses. Almost every name is a legendary steed lifted out of the classics, and the roll of King Mu of Zhou's eight coursers is raided hardest — seven of those names stand here (絕地、翻羽、奔霄、踰輝、超光、騰霧、挾翼), and 驊騮 and 綠耳 belong to a rival and equally old listing of the same team. Add the warhorse 赤兔 ridden by Lü Bu and then Guan Yu, the omen-bearing 飛黃, and the blood-sweating 大宛 horses of Ferghana, and the claim is plain: Heaven's herd is the sum of every famous horse in history and myth. There is a barb in it, too. A 千里馬 is proverbially the talent that goes unrecognised for want of a judge who can spot it, which is exactly the complaint Wukong is about to make about himself.
Two characters here are worth stopping over. 飛𦑭奔霄 preserves 𦑭, a character with no reading in any standard dictionary; the settled view is that it is a long-standing corruption (訛字) of 翮 (hé), "pinion," so the horse is "Flying Pinion." 虎𩤲 likewise carries the rare 𩤲, attested only as lā. This edition's policy is to keep both transmitted characters in the main text and flag the corruption in the notes rather than quietly mend it, so that the reader sees both what the 世德堂 cutters set and what scholarship makes of it.
Underneath the dazzle, the placement is pointed. In the vocabulary of inner alchemy the horse is the 意馬, the "will-horse," the bolting energy of desire that the adept is supposed to rein in. Here a thousand of the fleetest and least governable horses in the tradition are put under the charge of the 心猿, the mind-monkey. The cultivator's ideal — mind reining will, 心猿意馬 brought to harmony — is set up in literal, administrative form and then emptied of meaning, because Wukong is not asked to master these energies. He is asked to feed them and brush them down for wages. The lavishness of the catalogue measures exactly how much is being wasted on a post he will throw over within pages.