The Cloud Dream of the Nine - Kim ManChoong

When the time of Ja-jin's departure from the earth came, a green stone coffin descended from heaven. Ja-jin, seeing it, said that God was calling him. He then bathed and took his place in the coffin; the lid arose of itself and covered the top. A grave was found made without human hands just outside the city, where he is said to be buried.

[27] Page 127.

—Nong-ok (sixth century B.C.). She was the wife of Wang Ja-jin, the most renowned of all China's flautists. She learned from him, and when they played together it is said they brought down angel-birds (phoenixes) from the sky to hear them.

[28] Page 129.

—Yo, Soon. These are the two most famous rulers of patriarchal China. Their names are associated in Korea with the golden age of the world, and are passed from lip to lip as the ultimate of righteous kingship. Their story is told in the sacred “Book of History.”

[29] Page 143.

—The Three Relationships. The subject's duty to his sovereign; the son's duty to his father; the wife's duty to her husband.

[30] Page 144.

—The Primary Laws. These are the Five Laws for which special honour is done Confucius, as the great sage who emphasised their importance. They are: duty to the king; duty to a father; duty to an older brother; duty to a husband; duty to a friend.

[31] Page 145.

—The Six Forms. These have to do with marriage, and may be defined as: 1st, the announcement; 2nd, asking the name; 3rd, choosing the day; 4th, making the presents; 5th, settling the various times; 6th, performing the ceremony.

[32] Page 149.

—Six Laws. These pertain to the art of warfare, and are explained in the famous treatise said to have been written by the Duke Kang-tai, who flourished in the twelfth century B.C. The six divisions are marked respectively by the names Dragon, Tiger, Ideograph, Warrior, Leopard, Dog.

[33] Page 149.

—Eight Diagrams. These are sets of lines divided and undivided, arranged in threes, which, when combined in double sets, form the basis of “the Book of Changes,” the most famous literary work of Far Eastern Asia.

[34] Page 156.

—The Dragon King. He is said to live in the crystal palace, in the bottom of the sea, and to be the giver of rain. As the tiger is regarded as the king of the mountains, so the dragon rules the deep. The chief Dragon King presides over the Four Seas, while the lesser dragon kings hold court in such places as Nam-hai, Tong-jong, etc.

[35] Page 160.

—Grandmother of the Moon. There was a man in the time of the Tangs called Wi-go, who greatly desired to get married. Once, while he was going on a journey he saw an old woman sitting in the moonlight reading a book, while she leaned her back against a linen sack. Wi-go asked what book she was reading, and she replied that it was a book of the marriages of all the earth. Again he asked, “What is in the sack?” “Red string,” said she. “When once I have tied the feet of those who are destined for each other with this red cord the whole world cannot keep them apart.”

[36] Page 174.

—Transmigration of Souls. This is a teaching that came in with Buddhism, and has had a ruling place in the thought of the East for 2000 years. A righteous life in this present age means a step upward in the next existence, which, if continued, will at last bring one to Nirvana. Sin brings one lower and lower till at last it lands the guilty one in the hells that await the lost.

[37] Page 178.

—Weaving Damsel. She is one of the celestial lovers. Her sweetheart, the herdsman, is supposed to be the star b [beta] in Aquila, while she is the star a [alpha] in Lyra. They are lovers who, by the abyss of the Milky Way, are separated all the year round, till the 7th night of the 7th Moon, when the magpies of the earth assemble and form a bridge over the chasm and enable them to meet. This is one of the Orient's most famous legends.

[38] Page 179.

—Panso. She is the most noted of ancient literary women. Her brother is one of the first historians of the East, and after his death she, at the command of the Emperor, carried on what he had begun.

[39] Page 180.

—Pi-yon (first century B.C.) A famous dancing girl who, by her grace and loveliness of form, won the name of Pi-yon, Flying Swallow, and became the first favourite of the Emperor. So gifted was she in the touch of the toe that she could dance on the open palm of the hand.

[40] Page 208.

—Seven Precious Things. 1st, the full moon; 2nd, lovely ladies; 3rd, horses; 4th, elephants; 5th, the guardians of the treasury; 6th, great generals; 7th, wonder-working pearls.

[41] Page 219.

—The left hand. While in the East the right hand is really the place of honour if we judge by evidences of antiquity, still in ordinary usage the left comes first. In the marriage here mentioned, Princess Blossom takes precedence of Princess Orchid.

[42] Page 248.

—Che Kal-yang. He is the great Napoleonic leader of China 200 B.C. Hang-oo and Pom-jing, who lived shortly before the beginning of the Christian era, were lesser lights in the world of the warrior.

[43] Page 265.

—A-whang; Yo-yong. These were two sisters, daughters of the Emperor Yo (2288 B.C.), who, like Leah and Rachel, were given to his successor as his faithful wives. Tradition relates that they journeyed south with him till they reached Chang-o, where he died. They wept, and their tears, falling on the leaves, caused to come into being the spotted bamboo.

[44] Page 272.

—Im, Sa. Two famous women of China, who lived 1122 B.C.

[45] Page 288.

—So-boo (Nest-Father). He is a legendary being said to have lived B.C. 2357, and to have made his home in a tree; hence his name. He was a man of singular uprightness, who greatly influenced his age for good. Once, when offered the rule of the empire by the great Yo, he went and washed his ears in the brook to rid them of the taint of worldly ambition.

[46] Page 293.

—Chang Cha-pang. One of the founders of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.) and one of China's three great heroes. Mayers says: “At the close of his official career he renounced the use of food and prosecuted the search for the elixir of life under the guidance of a supernatural being, but failed to attain immortality.”