National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

230. FEMELES (ISLAND OF WOMEN)   679

same kind as] the Nine Continents (A, J1j Chiu-chou) of nr °Pi Tsou Yen (cf. GILES, Biogr. Dict.,

No. 2030) or the f    Shih-i [chi] of I It; Wang Chia (t c. 385). The Left Assistant of the
Ministry of Education (Ssei-t'u tso ch'ang-shih; misunderstood by SCHLEGEL, in TP, III, 498) Wang Yün (481-549) raised an objection against [Wan Chieh], saying : 'What is recorded in books is that east of the Kingdom of Women, [lying] west of Ts'an-yai, and south of the Kingdom of Dogs is a particular tribe of Ch'iang Barbarians. It is ruled by a woman, and there is no reason for their taking serpents for husbands. Why does this not agree with what you say?' » The original

of this sentence in the T'ai-p' ing kuang-chi, 81, 6 a, is :   `0j ff   Fl < fliRetcliZ

The opening words are awkward, and would almost suggest that the notion of the « Eastern Kingdom of Women », to be mentioned later, may underly this passage. It might seem to be more natural to translate: « The Kingdom of Women which the books record is a particular tribe of the Ch'iang Barbarians, east of [the Kingdom of —], west of Ts'an-yai, south of the Kingdom of Dogs.» Ts'an-yai was the name of a pass north-west of the district of if Kuan in Ssû-ch'uan, where a district (hsien) of Ts'an-yai had been established under the Han dynasty. For the Kou-kuo, one of the Kingdoms of Dogs, or Cynocephali, see below, p. 685. Ch'iang is a general name for people of Tibetan stock. The story proceeds « The gentleman said : According to our present knowledge there are six Kingdoms of Women. What are these? [11] East of the Northern Sea and north

of the... (j A- Z   ; the text is corrupt; these four words are omitted in the Shuo fu), there
is a 'Kingdom of Women' ; a celestial woman came down to rule it; there are in that kingdom men and women as it is usual everywhere else. [20] Among the south-western Barbarians, west of the

Pan-tun (this is the name of a formerly powerful tribe of Man of south-western China, on which Cf. D'HERVEY DE SAINT-DENYS, Ethnographie, Méridionaux, 54-71; D'HERVEY DE SAINTDENYS, following the usual pronunciation of the second character, has read the name « Pan-shun », but I think that we have here Al shun used as a substitute for S tun, « shield », ai d that the name means «Wooden shields »), there is a 'Kingdom of Women'. Its women are fierce, and its men respectful. A woman is the ruler of the people and takes a nobleman to husband; men are appointed as concubines ( jj ch'ieh-ying), at most a hundred men, at least a single mate (p'i-fu; but this is not the usual meaning of p'i fu; cf., however, Tz'ei hai s. v. [IG * and ,t). [3°] To the south-

east of Kun-ming, outside the furthest borders (ie   chüeh-chiao), there is a 'Kingdom of Women'
where apes (1-k yuan) are taken as husbands. If boys are born, they are like their father, and go into the valleys of the mountains, lying down in the day-time and moving at night. When girls

are born they settle on trees or live in caves (A g.   ch'ao-chü hsiieh-ch'u). [41] To the south-
east of the South Sea there is a 'Kingdom of Women'; in the whole kingdom only demons (94, kuei) are taken as husbands. The husbands bring [the women] drink and food, [catching] birds and beasts to feed them. [51] West of the tjj q4 Po-lü Mountains (*B`uat-liuét; *Balûr, = Baltistan and Gilgit; see « Belor ») there is a 'Kingdom of Women' which extends over a square of a hundred li; from the mountains flows the ,-) T'ai-hui River (perhaps « River of the Wrinkled Boa »; -(7,, t'ai being taken in the sense of p t'ai; or used for 1. t'ai, and the name imagined in imitation of that of the god of the Fên River, T'ai-t'ai, to be mentioned hereinafter; the name does not occur elsewhere; the passage quoted in the P'ei-wen yün fu from the late Kuang po-wu chih is merely

5.