Song of the Old Shaman老巫篇
予所居東隣有老巫。日會士女。以淫歌怪舌聞于耳。予甚不悅。歐之無因。會國家有勑。使諸巫遠徒。不接京師。予非特喜東家之淫沃寂然如掃。亦且賀京師之內無復淫詭。世質民淳。將復太古之風。是用作詩以賀之。且明夫此輩若淳且質。則豈見黜于王京哉。乃反託淫巫。以見擯斥。是自招招也。又誰咎哉。爲人臣者亦然。忠以事君。則終身無尤。妖以感衆。則不旋踵見敗。固其理也。
In the house to the east of where I live there was an old shaman, who gathered men and women day after day, so that lewd songs and uncanny babble came to my ears. I was greatly displeased, but had no way to drive her out. Then it happened that the state issued an edict ordering all shamans moved far off and forbidding them to settle in the capital. I rejoice not only that the lewdness of the eastern house has fallen silent as if swept clean, but I also offer congratulations that within the capital there will be no more lewdness and deceit, that the age will grow plain and the people simple, and that we are about to recover the customs of the remote past. For this reason I have written this poem in congratulation, and also to make clear that if this sort had been simple and plain, how would they have been expelled from the royal capital (王京)? Instead they relied on lewd shamanism and so met with expulsion; this they brought upon themselves. Whom else should they blame? It is the same for one who becomes another's subject. Serve your lord with loyalty, and to the end of your life you are without fault; bewitch the multitude with wickedness, and you are ruined before you can turn on your heel. Truly, that is the way of it.
Interlinear notes 1
幷序
A preface (序) is appended as well.
昔者巫咸神且奇。競懷椒糈相決疑。自從上天繼者誰。距今漠漠千百朞。肹彭眞禮抵謝羅。靈山路夐又難追。沅湘之間亦信鬼。荒淫譎詭尤可嗤。海東此風未掃除。女則爲覡男爲巫。自言至神降我軀。而我聞此笑且吁。如非穴中千歲鼠。當是林下九尾狐。東家之巫衆所惑。面皺鬢斑年五十。士女如雲屐滿戶。磨肩出門騈頸入。喉中細語如鳥聲。𠵘哰無緖緩復急。千言萬語幸一中。騃女癡男益敬奉。酸甘淡酒自飽腹。起躍騰身頭觸棟。緣木爲龕僅五尺。信口自導天帝釋。釋皇本在六天上。肯入汝屋處荒僻。丹靑滿壁盡神像。七元九曜以標額。星官本在九霄中。安能從汝居汝壁。死生禍福妄自推。其能試吾橫氣機。聚窮四方男女食。奪盡天下夫婦衣。我有利劒凜如水。幾廻欲往還復止。只因三尺法在耳。豈爲其神能我祟。東家之巫年迫暮。朝夕且死那能久。我今所念豈此爾。意欲盡逐滌民宇。君不見昔時鄴縣今河沈大巫使絶河伯娶。又不見今時咸尙書坐掃巫鬼。不使暫接虎。此翁逝後又寢興。醜鬼老貍爭復聚。敢賀朝廷有石畫。議逐群巫辭切直。暑名抗牘各自言。此豈臣利誠國益。聰明天子可其奏。朝未及暮如掃迹。爾曹若謂吾術神。變化怳惚應無垠。有聲何不鐍人聽。有形何不緘人盿。章丹陳朱猶謂幻。況復爾曹難隱身。携徒挈黨遠移徒。小臣爲國誠自喜。日游帝城便淸淨。瓦鼓喧聲無我耳。自念爲臣儻如此。誅流配貶固其理。我今幸是忘且晦。得接王京無我駭。凡百士子書諸紳。行身愼勿近淫怪。
In ancient times Wu Xian (巫咸) was divine and wondrous, and people vied to carry pepper and millet to him to have their doubts resolved. Since he ascended to heaven, who has carried on after him? To this day it has been a dim thousand and a hundred years. Wu Xi, Wu Peng, Wu Zhen, Wu Li, Wu Di, Wu Xie, Wu Luo — the road to the Spirit Mountain (靈山) is far, and they too are hard to follow. Even between the Yuan (沅水) and the Xiang (湘水) they trust in ghosts, and their coarseness, lewdness and trickery are the more laughable. East of the sea this custom has not yet been swept away: women become sorcerers (覡) and men become shamans (巫). They say of themselves that the highest god has come down into their bodies; hearing this, I laugh and then I sigh. If she is not a thousand-year-old rat out of a burrow, she must surely be a nine-tailed fox from under the woods. The shaman of the eastern house is one by whom the crowd is bewitched: her face wrinkled, her temple-hair mottled, she is fifty years old. Men and women come like clouds, their shoes filling the doorway, grinding shoulders as they go out, necks abreast as they come in. The thin speech in her throat is like birdsong, chattering without thread, now slow, now hurried. If out of a thousand words and ten thousand one happens to hit, the foolish women and simple men revere her the more. On wine sour, sweet and flat she fills her own belly, then rises and leaps and springs up till her head strikes the beam. She lashes wood into a shrine-niche barely five feet high, and says, as it comes out of her mouth, that she herself is Sakra, Emperor of Heaven (天帝釋). Sakra dwells by nature above the six heavens — how should he enter your house and sit in so cramped a corner? Painted colors fill the walls, every one a divine image (神像), and the Seven Primes (七元) and the Nine Luminaries (九曜) are marked on their brows. The star officials dwell by nature in the midst of the nine heavens — how should they follow you and live on your walls? Death and life, disaster and blessing she recklessly reckons for herself — how can that test the workings of my own surging breath? She gathers up all the food of the men and women of the four quarters, and strips away all the clothing of the husbands and wives of the world. I have a sharp sword, its edge blue as water, and how many times have I meant to go and then stopped again? It is only because there is the three-foot law; how should it be for fear her ghost could curse me? The shaman of the eastern house is far on in years, and will die one morning or evening — how long can she last? But is this the only thing I worry about now? My mind is to drive them all out and wash clean the houses of the people. Have you not seen how long ago in Ye County (鄴縣) they sank the great shaman in the river and put an end to marrying girls off to the River Earl (河伯)? And have you not seen how lately Minister Ham (咸尙書) sat and swept away the shaman-ghosts, not letting them come near even for a moment? After this old woman is gone they will rise again, and ugly ghosts and old wildcats will vie to gather once more. I dare to offer congratulations that the court has a firm plan, and that the counsel to expel the host of shamans was earnest and straight. They set down their names and sent up a document, each one saying: 「How should this be a subject's profit? It is truly the state's benefit.」 The wise and clear-sighted Son of Heaven approved their submission, and before the morning was out their traces were gone as if swept away. If you lot claim that your arts are divine, then your transformations should be rapturous and without limit. Having a voice, why can you not lock up others' hearing? Having a form, why can you not seal up others' seeing? Even Zhang Dan (章丹) and Chen Zhu (陳朱) were still called illusionists, and how much more you, who can hardly hide even your own bodies. Leading your followers and taking your mates, you move far away; and this small subject truly rejoices of himself for the sake of the state. Day by day the royal city has suddenly grown clear and clean, and the noisy clatter of the earthen drum is gone from my ears. I think to myself: if one who is a subject behaves like this, then to be cut down, banished and cast out is truly the way of it. I am now, happily, forgotten and hidden away, and though I live attached to the royal capital, nothing startles me. All you scholars, write this on your sashes: in your conduct, take care not to come near the lewd and the uncanny.
Interlinear notes 1
山海經云。天門。日月所入。有靈山。巫肹，巫彭，巫眞，巫禮，巫抵，巫謝，巫羅七巫居之。
The Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海經) says that the Gate of Heaven (天門) is where the sun and moon enter, and that there is a Spirit Mountain (靈山) where seven shamans dwell: Wu Xi (巫肹), Wu Peng (巫彭), Wu Zhen (巫眞), Wu Li (巫禮), Wu Di (巫抵), Wu Xie (巫謝) and Wu Luo (巫羅).