East Asian History - ANU

38125 "Song of the White Sparrow," lines 15-16. See translation in the main text.126 "Song of the White Sparrow," lines 20-21: "On top of the Gold Saddle Mountains isa white yak; it shakes its frosty hair andraises its head."127 Han shu rlC: [History of the Handynasty], juan 28, xia (Beijing: ZhonghuaShuju, 1975), p.1614.128 "Song of the White Sparrow," lines 18-19: "After the altar was built to prepare forthe suburban rites for Heaven, of its ownvolition the Gold Star came to assist thecrown and its beaded adornments." TheGolden Star is the same as "taibai" or Venus.For discussion of "taibai" see the followingfootnote.129 "Song of the White Sparrow," line 57:"On the white silver spear hung the flag ofthe Great White." The Great White was theplanet Venus. In the Han it was held thatstates under its force would be able toconquer the empire-world by military force.See Shiji,juan 27, p.1325. As is exemplifiedwith the statement that the Gold Star assiststhe regalia of the emperor, Venus is said tobe a great minister. See Shiji, juan 27,p.l327.130 "Song of the White Sparrow," line 57:"The twin pennants of the White Tiger andthree halberd staves." The White Tigerconstellation was associated with militaryaction, and in the Han was worshipped inthe autumn at the altar in the southernoutskirts of the city. See Shiji, juan 27,p.1306.131 "Song of the White Sparrow," line 38: "Inthe thousand ages since the White Emperorwas transformed on high." The WhiteEmperor was one of the stellar deities of theZhou period, who presided over the westernquarter. See the commentary in the Zhoulizhushu !1!illl i:ti5it [The Rites of Zhou withnotes and commentaries]juan 2, tianguan:JCtl, zhongzai *, dazai **[Officials for heaven-tomb minister-greatministerl, Shisan jing zhushu [The Thirteenclassics with notes and commentaries](Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1980), p.649.LEWIS MAYOWhite Sparrow" disseminates knowledge of this auspIcIous bird. Theauthoritative effect of the bird is registered in and produced by the songwritten in its name.In other words, the entire apparatus of a state goes into generating thissparrow's distinctiveness. The new epoch produces the exalted status of thebird, infusing it with the political energies of foundation, of power beginninganew. The bird is set apart, made special, by the ruler whose specialness itconveys: Zhang Chengfeng's transformation into an emperor is the force thatrenders the sparrow distinctive and memorable, and situates it in history. Theargument of the song is of course the opposite: it is the white sparrow whichmarks the specialness of Zhang, and is a sign of his transformation into a newbeing, the White-Robed Emperor of the Kingdom of the Golden Mountainsof the Western Han. The moment of its flight, a temporary arc in themovement of political time, is poetically frozen in the song. The most elusiveof things, flight itself, is thus politically (and poetically) appropriated. Thehand of power does not grasp the white bird; it is the autonomy of its flight,by which it actually eludes the control of the emperor, that gives it its politicalforce. Not only is it not a predator (it is thus removed from all suggestion ofviolence and force, and thus separated from any wilful act of coercion), it isnot actually physically possessed. The assemblage of white creatures, thewolves125 and yaks126 that wander in the mountains, and the torrents of riversand clouds, all partake of this unforced movement, this spontaneousconvergence of which the white sparrow is the most perfect manifestation.The ferocity of wolves and yaks puts these creatures on a lesser plain: theyare violent beings becoming submissive, threatening forces brought to heel.The white sparrow is beyond the normal order of power because it is beyondconflict. The powers that are brought to hand with the possession of huntingbirds are thus surpassed by this being which is outside of control andviolence.The white sparrow constitutes a point of convergence for multiplehistories and multiple geographies. The name of the Western Han kingdomand the reference to the story of the encounter between Emperor Wu of theHan and the goddess Xi Wang Mu (the Queen Mother of the West) summonsup not only some of the most renowned mythic and dynastic figures from thecentral Chinese tradition, but also the location of Dunhuang, physically andhistorically. It was in the reign of Emperor Wu that the first formal Chineseimperial colonies were established at Dunhuang127 and the allusion to thefabled mountains of Kunlun and the Queen Mother goddess who dwelt inthese holy places of the far west gave the seat of the new Kingdom of theGolden Mountains a special distinction by identifying it with spaces, forcesand people to which the central tradition granted privilege. The same is trueof the Golden Metallic Star128 (Venus or taibai "Great White," "* 8)129 andof the stellar constellation of the White Tiger (baihu 8 dfJ130 and of the stardeity "the White Emperor" (baidi EHff), 131 one of the five directional godsin the Zhou-dynasty system, who presided over the ascendancy of themetallic or gold phase and over the direction west in the Five Elements