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0574 Innermost Asia : vol.2
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[Figure] X Ast. (uncertain grave). (Transcript only.)

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doi: 10.20676/00000187
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I040   CHINESE INSCRIPTIONS AND RECORDS   [Appendix I

X. Ast. (uncertain grave). (Transcript only.)

  • 000000000000

  • 000M00000000

  • oBo*M—0000HTu

  • oMVE*MMW-Pooa4P

  • O4 aNIftWIMAAA

  • OMMMOACcZe ni~~

  • *A.(m ttliMMA

  • RS AM.A4A4MnOM~

  • R11A H *VR4tiu.4IA

  • 144AA*MMMOItA ZfTgff—MVAM JE011a~~ I A ni,."f-ff R A4 1►I VIsx: m T at AA RA AM 40ATTMM

The chi-liai day, [the eighteenth] of the ninth moon, the first day of which is jên-wu, in the mou-c1i`ên year, the first [of Tsung-chang 1].

The Ch`u-sa-na 2 Wang Ya-chê was [a native of . . . 3] in Hsi-chou. His natural disposition was simple and friendly. His illustrious conduct 4 . .. , . . . both perfect. In all his acts there was no deficiency. He was the . . . of his village, the pillar 5 of his house : how could it be anticipated that he would pass away like running water ? Not ... , . .. hard to detain, causing the winter cypress 6 to be destroyed root and branch, and the spring shoots . . . One morning he was metamorphosed', following the play of wind and light : the neighbouring hamlets mourned . . . , beating their breasts and weeping on the . . . 8 highways, thinking with admiration of his noble virtues, meditating on his exemplary character 9, dropping . . . tears like pearls, and adding to the number of speckled bamboos'''. He passed away at the age of a hundred and ... 11, and on the same day he was encoffined and buried in this tomb 12.

... uttered cries of lamentation,

The whole countryside was overwhelmed with grief. Alack and alas!

1 28 October, 668. Read ,gf, (    zEr. . . 1-'

, etc. The day of the month is deducible, of course, from the cyclical name chi-hai ; the reign-period from the fact that no other in the Tang dynasty begins with the year moic-ch'ên.

2 Taking Ch`u-sa-na as some foreign title. Or it might be a place-name : ' Ya-chê, Prince of Ch`u-sa-na'. In any case, it is clear that he was of non-Chinese origin.

3 The missing words at the top of the third column are

probably   }   : 'a native of Kao-ch`ang Hsien '.

Cf. Nos. VIII and XII.

4 A phrase borrowed from Odes, II. 7. iv. 5. It is usually interpreted as the great road ', but here the meaning adopted

in Cal ' j Tz'i yiian, J 36, seems preferable.

5 Literally, ' the lesser and greater beams ' forming the roof,

6 The deceased is compared with the evergreen cypress on account of his hale old age: see Lun yii, IX. 27.

7 A Taoist euphemism for death.

6 The missing word is probably   ` lanes '.

9 The phrase 0   , occurs in Shu thing, V. xxiv. 8.

Here it seems to mean the moral influence exerted by Wang which continued even after his death.

1e When the Emperor Shun died at 3fflJ q Tsang-wu

(the modern Wuchow in Kwangsi), his two consorts went thither to mourn for him, and wept so bitterly that their tears soaked into the bamboos and gave them a speckled appearance. This speckled variety of bamboo is still common in many parts of Hunan and Kwangsi.

" The second figure is missing.

12 What follows is in verse. Cf. No. VIII.