Ranka (legend)
Lanke or Lankeshan (
The exact date of origin of the legend is unknown, but it has literary antecedents from the 5th century AD, and the "rotten axe handle" plot element was certainly present by an early 6th-century version.
One plot element of the legend features two immortals playing a board game, interpreted in later times as Go, so that Lanke (or Ranka in Japanese) has become a literary name for Go.
The legend[edit]
The legend is recorded in Ren Fang 's Shuyiji or Tales of the Strange, and features a woodcutter, Wang Zhi or Wang Chih (
Wang Zhi was a hardy young fellow who used to venture deep into the mountains to find suitable wood for his axe. One day he went farther than usual and became lost. He wandered about for a while and eventually came upon two strange old men who were playing Go, their board resting on a rock between them. Wang Zhi was fascinated. He put down his axe and began to watch. One of the players gave him something like a date to chew on, so that he felt neither hunger nor thirst. As he continued to watch he fell into a trance for what seemed like an hour or two. When he awoke, however, the two old men were no longer there. He found that his axe handle had rotted to dust and he had grown a long beard. When he returned to his native village he discovered that his family had disappeared and that no one even remembered his name.
Lanke Mountain[edit]
Lanke Mountain, also known as Shishi ("Stone Room") Mountain or Shiqiao ("Stone Bridge") Mountain, is a hill located 10 km (6.2 mi) southeast of Quzhou city centre in Zhejiang, beside Wuxi River. The hilltop is 164 metres above sea level. The top of the hill features a rock formation in the form of a bridge. A cave is located under the bridge, which is said to be the location of the legend concerning Wang Zhi.
In religious Taoism, Lanke Mountain, as the abode of immortals, is identified as one of the 72 "blessed places".
Literary evolution[edit]
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2018) |
The early 4th-century compilation of legends and occult tales Yiyuan (
The 4th-century Dongyang Ji (
Still later, 6th-century author Ren Fang 's Shuyiji or Tales of the Strange reworked the story once again,[citation needed] so that the youths were playing a board game and singing, although he did not specifically mention Go.[2]
The later versions of the story that identify two elders playing Go may also be influenced by the motif of immortals playing Go in other stories, such as the tale that appeared in Gan Bao's 4th-century compilation of supernatural stories In Search of the Supernatural, in which the gods Bei Dou (the Big Dipper) and Nan Dou (the corresponding stars in Sagittarius) were playing Go, when the youth Yan Chao approached them to ask for a longer life.
Translations[edit]
- A version by Shin Kato (1942) which begins "Once upon a time a Chinese wood-cutter lost his way in a deep mountain."[5]
- A version retold by Lionel Giles in A Gallery of Chinese Immortals (1948).
Allusions[edit]
Poetic references[edit]
A poem by Tang dynasty poet Meng Jiao called The Stone Bridge of Lanke Mountain referenced the legend: "The path on which the wood chopper returned / the rotten axe handle goes with the wind / only the stone bridge remains / to ride above the red rainbow[6]
A slightly later literary reference is a poem written in 900 by the Japanese poet and court official Ki no Tomonori upon returning to Japan from China:[7]
furusato wa
mishi goto mo arazu
ono no e no
kuchishi tokoro zo
koishikarikeru
Here in my hometown
things are not as I knew them.
How I long to be
in the place where the axe shaft
moldered away into dust.
In Go[edit]
Later generations interpreted the game that the immortals were playing in the legend as Go. As a result, Lanke, or Ranka as pronounced in Japanese, became a literary name for Go.
Similar legends[edit]
Oware is a board game that has a similar legend, from which the game derives its name.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Yim, Lawrence C.H (2009), The Poet-historian Qian Qianyi, Routledge, pp. 92ff, ISBN 978-1-134-00606-9
- ^ a b Ren Fang (
任 昉), Shu Yi Ji (《述 異 記 》: "At Mount Shishi in Xing'an County, during the Jin Dynasty, a Wang Zhi was chopping wood, when he saw several youths, playing a board game and singing. Zhi stopped to listen. The youths gave an item to Zhi, which was similar to a date core. Zhi held it in his mouth and felt no hunger. A moment later, the youths said: "Why are you not going?" Zhi rose, and saw that the axe handle had completely rotted. When he returned, he saw no-one from his own time." (「信 安 郡 石室 山 ,晉 時 王 質 伐木 ,至 見 童子 數 人 ,棋而歌 ,質 因 聽之。童子 以一物 與 質 ,如棗核 ,質 含之不覺 饑 。俄 頃 ,童子 謂 曰:『何 不 去 ?』,質 起 ,視 斧 柯爛盡 ,既 歸 ,無 復 時人 。」) - ^ Liu Jingshu (刘敬叔), Yiyuan (《异苑》):"In the olden days, a man rode a horse into a mountain. Two elderly men were by the side of the road playing shupu. He got off the course, and leaned his whip on the ground and watched. He thought only a moment had passed, but when he looked at his horse whip, it had completely rotted; he then looked at his horse, and it was a skeleton. When he got home, none of his family was alive. He died from the grief. (“
昔 有人 乘 马山行 ,遥 岫里有 二 老翁 ,相 对樗蒲 。遂 下 马,以策拄地而观之 。自 谓俄顷,视其马鞭,漼然已 烂,顾瞻其马,鞍 骸骨 朽 ,既 而至家 ,无复亲属,一 恸而绝。”) - ^ Commentary on the Water Classic(《
水 经注》), quoting Dongyang Ji: "In Xing'an County there is a Xuanshi ("Hanging Room") Hill. In mid-Jin dynasty, a commoner Wang Zhi was chopping wood when he came upon the stone room. He saw four youths playing a stringed instrument and singing. Zhi stayed, listening while leaning on the handle of his axe. The youths gave him an item, similar to a date core. Zhi held it in his mouth and was no longer hungry. A moment later, the youths said, "we are leaving", and left. The axe handle had completely rotted. When he returned, Zhi found that he had been gone for several decades, and all his family had died. (「信 安 縣 有 懸 室坂 ,晉 中 朝 時 ,有 民 王 質 ,伐木 至 石室 中 ,見 童子 四 人 彈琴 而歌,質 因 留 ,倚柯聽之。童子 以一物如棗核與質,質 含之便 不 復 饑 。俄 頃 ,童子 曰:其歸。承 聲 而去,斧 柯漼然 爛 盡 。既 歸 ,質 去 家 已 數 十 年 ,親 情 凋落 。」) - ^ Kato, Shin (1942), "Our National Game of 'Go'", Contemporary Japan, 11 (1), Foreign affairs association of Japan: 92ff
- ^ 《
爛 柯山石橋 》:「樵 客 返 歸路 ,斧 柯爛從 風 ,唯 余 石橋 在 ,猶 自 凌 丹 紅 。」 - ^ Ki no Tomonori, “991” In Kokin Wakashū: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry, trans. Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 216.