Проблемы литератур Дальнего Востока. Часть 1

Новые вопросы изучения классической китайской литературы... Issues of Far Eastern Literatures. Vol. 1. 2018 197 The very plots of the two tales, describing the indicated Hail Deity, are excep- tionally simple. The first one narrates about Wang Mengzhen ( ⦻ᆏ䴷 , 1563– 1636), the Ming ( ᰾ , 1368–1644) official and generalist, and his visit to the sacred habitat of immortal Zhang Daoling ( ᕥ䚃䲥 , 34–156) where he met the Heavenly Master ( ཙᑛ ) and his entourage. Among retinue there was an official (like all the others dressed in a very special way, “not like the common people do” ( н于ᑨӪ )) who actually brought Wang Mengzhen the Heavenly Master’s invitation. Zhang Daoling recommended him as the dear guest’s fellow countryman and announced, that he was none other than the Hailstone God and was about to leave for Zhangqu ( ㄐш ) region to perform a hailstorm. Wang Mengzhen started to implore the Heavenly Master to facilitate the calamity feeling sorry for his neighbors; Zhang Daoling, unable to cancel the order of the Supreme [Heavenly] Emperor, then commanded the Hail God to pour out the hailstones into ravines, not on the fields, so that the directive would be fulfilled and the guest’s request would be complied with. Then he instructed the God “to go decorously, not militantly” ( ᮷৫य↖ ). The God went out to the courtyard, then all of a sudden the smoke started puff- ing from under his feet; the Hail Deity soared up above the roof and flew north, having disappeared with the bolt of thunder. Later it turned up that the very day indeed was a hailstorm, but with moats and ditches filled with hailstones, while only few of the latter fell on the peasant fields [ 15 , V. 1, p. 51–52] 1 . The second tale deals with totally different issues: another man of letters, this time of LateMing—Early Qing (1644–1911) period, TangMenglai ( ୀདྷ䌊 , 1627?–1698?), is traveling to the county of Rizhao ( ᰕ➗ ) in Shandong to see somewhat named An ( ᆹ ) to his last journey. On the way he passes by the Hail Deity shrine and stops to visit the sanctuary. Near the entrance there is a pond with exclusively clean and translucent water; several red fishes swim in it with one constantly floating up looking for food and showing no fear of human. Tang Menglai picks up a small stone and plans to throw it at the fish for a mischief. The Taoist priest stops him and warns that the fishes in the pond are relative to dragons, and hitting themmay offend the Hail God. Teng Menglai derides the priest’s fantasies and throws the stone at the fish. After that all the way to the east Teng Menglai is followed by a black cloud, hovering just above his head and dropping hailstones big as cotton seeds. Having stopped, the official speaks to his younger brother who has traveled a bit behind— the latter noticed no hail at all; neither those, who have traveled in front of Teng Menglai, had a slightest idea about the hail. Then a temple of Guan-di ( 䰌ᑍ ) in Rizhao county witnesses the following: ġ a peddler, having put his load outside, all at sudden rushes into the holy place, drags a halberd from the rack and starts whirling it about, then declares himself the Hail God and announces that he’s accompanying Tang Menglai on his journey to the funeral 1 This novelette has been translated into Russian by academician V. M. Alexeev and published in 2000 [6, 628–630].