The Sweet Springs Palace
1
He is Han's tenth generation, and intending to offer the boundary sacrifices to the Supreme Mystery and establish the Grand Altar, He gathers unto Himself divine blessings, honors the lustrous appellations, matches tally with the Three Emperors, registers merit equal to that of the Five Lords, shows concern for the succession, bestows largesse, broadens His pathway, and inaugurates new ventures. Thereupon, He orders the numerous officers to reckon an auspicious day and correlate an efficacious hour.
As the stars spread out and Heaven begins to move:
2
He summons Twinkling Indicator and Grand Yin,
Commands Angular Array to take charge of the troops,
Assigns Geomancer to the ramparts,
Cudgels Demon Drought and flogs Flying Frenzy.
The Eight Spirits race off, heralding and clearing the road:
Swarming in tumultuous throngs, in battle dress,
Peers of Chiyou
Girding on Ganjiang swords, grasping jade axes,
Fly-hurry-scurry, run leaping and lurching;
Jointly massed and mustered, grouped and gathered, twined and tangled,
Swift as whirlwinds, fleet as clouds, they rush helter-skelter;
Ranged in ranks, arrayed in columns, melding and merging like fishscales,
Higgledy-piggledy, diversely disposed, they leap like fish, glide like birds;
Bright and blazing, in a blinding blur, gathering like fog, closing in like mist,
Scattering and spreading, radiant and resplendent, they form an intricate pattern.
3
And then the Emperor thereupon
Mounts the phoenix car, shaded by a floriate mushroom,
With a four-in-hand of azure wiverns, a six-in-hand of ecru dragons:
Coiling and uncoiling, lush and luxuriant,
Streaming out, floridly festooned,
Suddenly they gather in darkness,
Abruptly they open to the light.
They overleap the pure empyrean, pass floating phosphors:
How the falcon and tortoise standards so straight and tall flap and flutter!
Spangled oxtail pennants streaming forth, flashing like lightning,
Blend with halcyon-plume canopies and simurgh banners.
Assembling a myriad riders in the central camp,
Mustering a thousand rigs of jade-encrusted chariots,
Their sounds rumbling and roaring, echoing and re-echoing,
Nimbly outpacing rapid thunder, outgalloping the swiftest wind,
He scales the lofty heights of a high plateau,
Crosses the crystalline clarity of winding waters,
Ascends Chuanluan and alights at Heaven's gate,
Gallops through Changhe and enters its trembling terror.
4
At this time, while yet to reach Sweet Springs,
He gazes upon the continuous splendor of the Sky-Piercing Tower
The base, submerged in shade, is chilly and cold;
The spire, a vast chaos, complexly conjoined,
Straight, tall and towering, reaches to Heaven:
Its height, alas, cannot be fully measured!
A level plain, broad and spaciously sprawling,
Is lined with peony trees in groves and thickets;
Clustered windmill palms and field mint
Rampantly spread and scatter without limit.
Lofty the proud hauteur of hills and barrows!
Deep moats, steeply scarped, form ravines.
Hither and thither, detached palaces outspread, lighting one another;
Great Peak and Stone Gate wind and weave, endlessly extended.
5
And then
A grand edifice, illusory as clouds, deceptive as waves,
Precipitiously piled, forms a tower
Raising and lifting His head to look on high,
His eyes, blurred and blinded, see nothing
Straight ahead, the view full and flowing, vast and wide,
Points to a spacious sweep east and west
All dizzy and giddy,
His soul is dazed and dazzled, confounded and confused.
As he clutches the grilled dash and gazes all around,
Suddenly the vista is broad and boundless, without limit
Halcyon-colored the virescent luster of jade trees,
Prase-hued the sparkling splendor of horses and rhinos
Bronze figures, brave and bold, upholding bell-stands,
Cragged and crenate, scaled like dragons,
Brandish lighted torches of lustrous brilliance,
Trail a fervid fulgor of luminous flame
All this befits the Hanging Garden of the Lord's abode,
And images the majestic spirit of Grand Unity
The massive terrace thrusts itself upward in solitary prominence,
Reaching the supernal heights of the Northern Pole.
Constellations now stretch across the upper crests,
The sun and moon pass through the middle eaves,
Thunder rumbles and roars in its crags and crannies,
Lightning darts and dashes in its walls and fences.
Even ghosts and demons cannot reach the top;
Halfway up its long course, they tumble down again.
It passes Upturned Phosphors, traverses Flying Bridge,
Drifts through Murky Mist, and brushes Heaven.
Gouging Spear left, Mysterious Darkness right,
Flaming Watchtower front, and the receiving gate rear,
It shades the Western Sea and Dark Capital,
Where bubbling wine spurts forth to form a stream.
A dragon coils and curls along the eastern cliff;
The White Tiger fiercely guards the Kunlun.
6
Gazing, roaming round at Lofty Radiance,
At ease, He lingers and loiters at a western repose
The front hall stands tall and towering,
With Jade-of-He glittering and glistening,
And flying rafters on floating posts raised aloft,
As if spirits, with mighty heaves, brace their collapse.
It spires upward, gaping and yawning, open and wide,
Like the precipitous profundity of Purple Palace.
Row by row, joined one to another, its buildings spread and sprawl,
Long and narrow, tall and towering, intertwining,
Climbing into cloud-capped turrets, rising and falling,
Tangling in a murky mass, as if from chaos formed.
Trailing a long stream of scarlet color,
Wafting a curling wreath of azure vapor,
It is heir to the Jade Chamber and the Hundred-Acre Palace,
And as He climbs this height to gaze afar,
He is awe-struck, as if poised on an abyss.
7
A swirling whirlwind vents its pulsing fury,
Scattering cinnamon and pepper, gathering poplar and willow:
Fragrance, pungent and strong, arching upward,
Strikes the brackets, grazes the eaves.
Sounds rapidly reverberate with a clashing and clanging,
Musical echoes, pealing and chiming, pass through the bells;
It pushes jade doors open, joggles bronze knockers,
Whisking off thoroughwort, sweet basil, and hemlock parsley.
Curtains bulge and billow, shake and shudder;
Gradually all becomes dark and dim, deeply silent
Yin and yang, clear and turbid, solemn and gay echo one another,
As if Kui and Ya were playing their zithers.
Ban and Chui would discard their knives and chisels;
Wang Er would throw down his compass and plumb.
Even to a Zheng Qiao or Wo Quan
It would be a vague vision as if in a dream.
8 And then, events change and things transform, His eyes start and ears whirr. The Son of Heaven then sedately stands in the midst of precious traces leisure lodges, jade finials, nephrite petals, all crinkled-and-curled scrolled and scalloped. For this is a means to cleanse His mind, purify His soul, gather His vitality, and concentrate His thoughts, to influence Heaven and Earth, and receive blessings from the Three Spirits. Whereupon, He seeks partners, searches for mates, cohorts like Gao and Yi, peerless exemplars, superlative talents, who enfold the kindness of the " Sweet Pear, " and embrace the intent of the " Eastward March, " together to purify themselves in the palace of the yang spirit.
He spreads fig leaves for mats,
Snaps carnelian branches for their fragrance,
Sips flowing mists in cerulean clouds,
Drinks from the dewy petals of the Ruo Tree.
They assemble in the enclosure for rites to the gods
Ascend the hall for lauding the earth-spirits.
He raises the long swallowtail streamers of dazzling brilliance,
Displays the lush luxuriance of the floriate sunshade,
Grasps the Jade Armil and downward looks,
Casts His roving gaze over the Triperil peaks
Deploying His many chariots over the eastern slope,
He releases the jade wheel-locks and gallops downward;
Drifting on Dragon Pool, circling the Nine Divisions,
He peers under the earth and turns upward.
Winds, blasting and blustering, propel His axles;
Simurghs and phoenixes tangle in His chariot fringe
Bridging Weak River's shallow shoals,
Treading Buzhou's twisting tracks,
He recalls Queen Mother of the West, and joyfully salutes her longevity.
He rejects Jade Maiden, expels Consort Fu.
Jade Maiden has no place to gaze her limpid orbs;
Consort Fu can no longer flaunt her pretty eyebrows
Now He grasps the essential firmness of the Way and Virtue,
And equal to the gods, consults with them.
9
And then
Reverently He makes a burnt offering, devoutly prays:
The holocaust perfumes the august heavens,
Hoisted by pyre to Grand Unity.
He raises Great Sustenance,
Plants the Sacred Pennant.
Firebrands and burning stalks ascend together,
Seatter into the four directions:
Eastward illumining the Azure Sea,
Westward dazzling the Flowing Sands,
Northward brightening the Dark Capital,
Southward singeing the Cinnabar Shore
In His Black ladle, curved and contoured,
The millet libation fragrantly froths,
Spreading and scattering, rich and full,
Savory and sapid, sweetly scented
The flames stir the yellow dragon;
The blaze rouses the giant unicorn.
He selects Shaman Xian to hail the Lord's gatekeeper,
To open the celestial court and invite the spirit multitudes.
Visitants, thickly thronging, descend on the pure altar;
Auspicious omens, profusely abundant, heap into mountains.
10
And then
The service ended, and His merit expanded,
He wheels His chariot and returns,
Crossing Tri-Peak Tower, resting at Pear Palace:
Heaven's threshold is agape, Earth's boundary is open,
The Eight Barrens are in harmony, the myriad states are in accord.
He scales Changping and thunder drums rumble;
Their celestial sounds rise forth and brave warriors wax fierce.
Clouds fly and soar, rains swell and surge;
Now all are virtuous, to beautify a myriad ages.
11
The finale:
Tall, so tall, the circular mound,
Arching upward, concealing the sky,
Climbing and plunging, twisting and twining,
Sinuously curls and coils.
Storied palaces, jaggedly jutting,
Stand abreast, peaked and pinnacled,
Deep and steep, towering tier upon tier,
Cavernous, without bound.
The actions of high Heaven,
Are mysteriously swift and sudden.
Our Sage Sovereign, solemn and stately,
Truly is Heaven's compeer.
Reverently He comes to sacrifice to the bounds;
He is one on whom the gods rely
Wandering and wavering, rambling and roving,
The divinities now rest and repose.
With a bright brilliance glistering and glittering,
They send down their blessing:
" Son after son, grandson after grandson,
Forever, without end. "
He is Han's tenth generation, and intending to offer the boundary sacrifices to the Supreme Mystery and establish the Grand Altar, He gathers unto Himself divine blessings, honors the lustrous appellations, matches tally with the Three Emperors, registers merit equal to that of the Five Lords, shows concern for the succession, bestows largesse, broadens His pathway, and inaugurates new ventures. Thereupon, He orders the numerous officers to reckon an auspicious day and correlate an efficacious hour.
As the stars spread out and Heaven begins to move:
2
He summons Twinkling Indicator and Grand Yin,
Commands Angular Array to take charge of the troops,
Assigns Geomancer to the ramparts,
Cudgels Demon Drought and flogs Flying Frenzy.
The Eight Spirits race off, heralding and clearing the road:
Swarming in tumultuous throngs, in battle dress,
Peers of Chiyou
Girding on Ganjiang swords, grasping jade axes,
Fly-hurry-scurry, run leaping and lurching;
Jointly massed and mustered, grouped and gathered, twined and tangled,
Swift as whirlwinds, fleet as clouds, they rush helter-skelter;
Ranged in ranks, arrayed in columns, melding and merging like fishscales,
Higgledy-piggledy, diversely disposed, they leap like fish, glide like birds;
Bright and blazing, in a blinding blur, gathering like fog, closing in like mist,
Scattering and spreading, radiant and resplendent, they form an intricate pattern.
3
And then the Emperor thereupon
Mounts the phoenix car, shaded by a floriate mushroom,
With a four-in-hand of azure wiverns, a six-in-hand of ecru dragons:
Coiling and uncoiling, lush and luxuriant,
Streaming out, floridly festooned,
Suddenly they gather in darkness,
Abruptly they open to the light.
They overleap the pure empyrean, pass floating phosphors:
How the falcon and tortoise standards so straight and tall flap and flutter!
Spangled oxtail pennants streaming forth, flashing like lightning,
Blend with halcyon-plume canopies and simurgh banners.
Assembling a myriad riders in the central camp,
Mustering a thousand rigs of jade-encrusted chariots,
Their sounds rumbling and roaring, echoing and re-echoing,
Nimbly outpacing rapid thunder, outgalloping the swiftest wind,
He scales the lofty heights of a high plateau,
Crosses the crystalline clarity of winding waters,
Ascends Chuanluan and alights at Heaven's gate,
Gallops through Changhe and enters its trembling terror.
4
At this time, while yet to reach Sweet Springs,
He gazes upon the continuous splendor of the Sky-Piercing Tower
The base, submerged in shade, is chilly and cold;
The spire, a vast chaos, complexly conjoined,
Straight, tall and towering, reaches to Heaven:
Its height, alas, cannot be fully measured!
A level plain, broad and spaciously sprawling,
Is lined with peony trees in groves and thickets;
Clustered windmill palms and field mint
Rampantly spread and scatter without limit.
Lofty the proud hauteur of hills and barrows!
Deep moats, steeply scarped, form ravines.
Hither and thither, detached palaces outspread, lighting one another;
Great Peak and Stone Gate wind and weave, endlessly extended.
5
And then
A grand edifice, illusory as clouds, deceptive as waves,
Precipitiously piled, forms a tower
Raising and lifting His head to look on high,
His eyes, blurred and blinded, see nothing
Straight ahead, the view full and flowing, vast and wide,
Points to a spacious sweep east and west
All dizzy and giddy,
His soul is dazed and dazzled, confounded and confused.
As he clutches the grilled dash and gazes all around,
Suddenly the vista is broad and boundless, without limit
Halcyon-colored the virescent luster of jade trees,
Prase-hued the sparkling splendor of horses and rhinos
Bronze figures, brave and bold, upholding bell-stands,
Cragged and crenate, scaled like dragons,
Brandish lighted torches of lustrous brilliance,
Trail a fervid fulgor of luminous flame
All this befits the Hanging Garden of the Lord's abode,
And images the majestic spirit of Grand Unity
The massive terrace thrusts itself upward in solitary prominence,
Reaching the supernal heights of the Northern Pole.
Constellations now stretch across the upper crests,
The sun and moon pass through the middle eaves,
Thunder rumbles and roars in its crags and crannies,
Lightning darts and dashes in its walls and fences.
Even ghosts and demons cannot reach the top;
Halfway up its long course, they tumble down again.
It passes Upturned Phosphors, traverses Flying Bridge,
Drifts through Murky Mist, and brushes Heaven.
Gouging Spear left, Mysterious Darkness right,
Flaming Watchtower front, and the receiving gate rear,
It shades the Western Sea and Dark Capital,
Where bubbling wine spurts forth to form a stream.
A dragon coils and curls along the eastern cliff;
The White Tiger fiercely guards the Kunlun.
6
Gazing, roaming round at Lofty Radiance,
At ease, He lingers and loiters at a western repose
The front hall stands tall and towering,
With Jade-of-He glittering and glistening,
And flying rafters on floating posts raised aloft,
As if spirits, with mighty heaves, brace their collapse.
It spires upward, gaping and yawning, open and wide,
Like the precipitous profundity of Purple Palace.
Row by row, joined one to another, its buildings spread and sprawl,
Long and narrow, tall and towering, intertwining,
Climbing into cloud-capped turrets, rising and falling,
Tangling in a murky mass, as if from chaos formed.
Trailing a long stream of scarlet color,
Wafting a curling wreath of azure vapor,
It is heir to the Jade Chamber and the Hundred-Acre Palace,
And as He climbs this height to gaze afar,
He is awe-struck, as if poised on an abyss.
7
A swirling whirlwind vents its pulsing fury,
Scattering cinnamon and pepper, gathering poplar and willow:
Fragrance, pungent and strong, arching upward,
Strikes the brackets, grazes the eaves.
Sounds rapidly reverberate with a clashing and clanging,
Musical echoes, pealing and chiming, pass through the bells;
It pushes jade doors open, joggles bronze knockers,
Whisking off thoroughwort, sweet basil, and hemlock parsley.
Curtains bulge and billow, shake and shudder;
Gradually all becomes dark and dim, deeply silent
Yin and yang, clear and turbid, solemn and gay echo one another,
As if Kui and Ya were playing their zithers.
Ban and Chui would discard their knives and chisels;
Wang Er would throw down his compass and plumb.
Even to a Zheng Qiao or Wo Quan
It would be a vague vision as if in a dream.
8 And then, events change and things transform, His eyes start and ears whirr. The Son of Heaven then sedately stands in the midst of precious traces leisure lodges, jade finials, nephrite petals, all crinkled-and-curled scrolled and scalloped. For this is a means to cleanse His mind, purify His soul, gather His vitality, and concentrate His thoughts, to influence Heaven and Earth, and receive blessings from the Three Spirits. Whereupon, He seeks partners, searches for mates, cohorts like Gao and Yi, peerless exemplars, superlative talents, who enfold the kindness of the " Sweet Pear, " and embrace the intent of the " Eastward March, " together to purify themselves in the palace of the yang spirit.
He spreads fig leaves for mats,
Snaps carnelian branches for their fragrance,
Sips flowing mists in cerulean clouds,
Drinks from the dewy petals of the Ruo Tree.
They assemble in the enclosure for rites to the gods
Ascend the hall for lauding the earth-spirits.
He raises the long swallowtail streamers of dazzling brilliance,
Displays the lush luxuriance of the floriate sunshade,
Grasps the Jade Armil and downward looks,
Casts His roving gaze over the Triperil peaks
Deploying His many chariots over the eastern slope,
He releases the jade wheel-locks and gallops downward;
Drifting on Dragon Pool, circling the Nine Divisions,
He peers under the earth and turns upward.
Winds, blasting and blustering, propel His axles;
Simurghs and phoenixes tangle in His chariot fringe
Bridging Weak River's shallow shoals,
Treading Buzhou's twisting tracks,
He recalls Queen Mother of the West, and joyfully salutes her longevity.
He rejects Jade Maiden, expels Consort Fu.
Jade Maiden has no place to gaze her limpid orbs;
Consort Fu can no longer flaunt her pretty eyebrows
Now He grasps the essential firmness of the Way and Virtue,
And equal to the gods, consults with them.
9
And then
Reverently He makes a burnt offering, devoutly prays:
The holocaust perfumes the august heavens,
Hoisted by pyre to Grand Unity.
He raises Great Sustenance,
Plants the Sacred Pennant.
Firebrands and burning stalks ascend together,
Seatter into the four directions:
Eastward illumining the Azure Sea,
Westward dazzling the Flowing Sands,
Northward brightening the Dark Capital,
Southward singeing the Cinnabar Shore
In His Black ladle, curved and contoured,
The millet libation fragrantly froths,
Spreading and scattering, rich and full,
Savory and sapid, sweetly scented
The flames stir the yellow dragon;
The blaze rouses the giant unicorn.
He selects Shaman Xian to hail the Lord's gatekeeper,
To open the celestial court and invite the spirit multitudes.
Visitants, thickly thronging, descend on the pure altar;
Auspicious omens, profusely abundant, heap into mountains.
10
And then
The service ended, and His merit expanded,
He wheels His chariot and returns,
Crossing Tri-Peak Tower, resting at Pear Palace:
Heaven's threshold is agape, Earth's boundary is open,
The Eight Barrens are in harmony, the myriad states are in accord.
He scales Changping and thunder drums rumble;
Their celestial sounds rise forth and brave warriors wax fierce.
Clouds fly and soar, rains swell and surge;
Now all are virtuous, to beautify a myriad ages.
11
The finale:
Tall, so tall, the circular mound,
Arching upward, concealing the sky,
Climbing and plunging, twisting and twining,
Sinuously curls and coils.
Storied palaces, jaggedly jutting,
Stand abreast, peaked and pinnacled,
Deep and steep, towering tier upon tier,
Cavernous, without bound.
The actions of high Heaven,
Are mysteriously swift and sudden.
Our Sage Sovereign, solemn and stately,
Truly is Heaven's compeer.
Reverently He comes to sacrifice to the bounds;
He is one on whom the gods rely
Wandering and wavering, rambling and roving,
The divinities now rest and repose.
With a bright brilliance glistering and glittering,
They send down their blessing:
" Son after son, grandson after grandson,
Forever, without end. "
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