Blue Green CloudsAuthor(s): Edward H. SchaferSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 102, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1982), pp. 91-92Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/601113 .

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SCHAFER: Blue Green Clouds 91

BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS

Blue Green Clouds

At the time when the Shih ching and the other glorious classics were written, the word ch'ing referred to a broader segment of the spectrum than do either of our words "green" and "blue." In later periods the word lu, a dye-name, took over the yellower (i.e., greener) portion of this range, leaving the remainder to ch'ing.'

There were two notable exceptions to this rule. Ch'ing meant (a) "green" with reference to vegetation, in deference to classical precedent;2 and (b) "blue + green" with reference to a class of mineral pigments, especially the copper carbon- ates malachite (green) and azurite (blue); in these cases it corresponds best to English "verditer; bice," and one of the common Chinese names for malachite 1l6 ch'ing means pre- cisely "green verditer."3 But even commoner names for these two minerals were shih ch'ing "stone blue" (azurite) and shih to "stone green" (malachite).4 These meanings were not restricted to mineral pigments: they came also to be used of the colors of dyed fabrics. For instance, the court costumes of T'ang officials included lu i "green dress" for the seventh class, and ch'ing i "blue dress" for the eighth and ninth classes.5

In short, ch'ing is regularly restricted to "blue" in post- "classical" literature.6 This usage, so contrary to that of

revered antiquity, was as puzzling to Chinese readers as it often is to modern students of their language. But one scholar of Ming times resolved their perplexity neatly in terms of traditional "Five Activities" (wu hsing) metaphysics. He wrote:

It may be asked, 'Why is it that while the color of Vegetation (mu)7 is ultimately Blue (ch'ing), herba- ceous and woody plants alike are all green (1l6)?' Doubtless because green (Wli) is a color between blue (ch'ing) and yellow (huang). Vegetation will not grow up in the absence of Earth (t'u).8 Hence Blue, being dependent on Yellow, becomes green."9

Now that it is settled that ch'ing is, in essence, "blue," we can turn to a semantic problem that has been the bugbear of translators of Chinese poetry for generations: what are we to understand by the expression ch'ing yun? Few translators have been willing to risk "green clouds" or "verdant clouds" -but I have seen the noncommittal "glaucous clouds." Some have tried the evasive "dark clouds," even where the context clearly indicates fluffy white cumuli drifting through sunny weather. Others have not blushed to employ the embarrassing "azure clouds," whatever that may mean.

The phrase is indeed an attributive one, but the ch'ing does not describe the color of the clouds, rather the color of their background. Formally it is analogous to Lien shang "above in the sky" (not "above the sky"!), or, more briefly, "up in the sky." Ch'ing yin, accordingly, means "clouds in the blue," in which ch'ing, like our "blue," serves, as fre- quently, as a synecdoche for "unclouded sky."

This common expression has a number of interesting analogues. Let me mention just one which is structurally identical: ch'ing Han, as it occurs in a verse by Chia Tao: "The Gate of Swords leans on the Han in the blue" (chien men i ch'ing Han).'0 Interpreted, this means, "the famous high pass in Szechwan called 'gate of Swords,' seems, at that

iFor a solid philological introduction to the word ch'ing, especially in its classical chlorophyllous aspects, see P. A. Boodberg, "On Chinese tsWing 'blue-green'," Cedules from a Berkelev Workshop in Asiatic Philology, reprinted in Alvin P. Cohen, ed., Selected Works of Peter A. Boodberg (Uni- versity of California Press, 1979), pp. 178-179.

2But distant hills, especially when cloaked in haze, were said to be ch'ing; the sense appears to have been "bluish."

3But unless modified by l6 "green," ch'ing, as the name of a pigment, is regularly "blue"; e.g., in the painter's color ta ch'ing "great blue," which is a synonym of the medieval k ung ch'ing "hollow blue," both denoting azurite blue.

4 "Stone blue" was obviously another synonym of "hollow blue," i.e., azurite. See, inter a/ia, ". . . hollow blue and stone green from Hsuan-ch'eng" (Hssuan ch 'eng k'ung ch'ing shih hu), in Tang shu (Szu pu pei yao ed.), 134, 3a. Cf. note 3 above.

5Tang shu, 24, 5a. 61 am not here concerned with such refinements as

symbolic blues (cf. Wallace Stevens' "blue guitar"), meta- phoric blues (cf. our "bluenose"), or approximate blues (cf. our "blue fox" and "blue goose"). As for the latter, we, as well as the Chinese, sometimes call hoary or gray (perhaps with bluish glints) color phases of certain animals "blue."

7 Mu used it its broadest classificatory sense, and as one of the Five Activities.

8 Here as one of the Five Activities. Its color aspect is Yellow.

9 Wang K'uei, Li hai chi (Ts'ung shu chi ch'eng ed.; Ch'ang-sha, 1939), p. 14.

10 Chia Tao, "Sung Mu shao fu chih Mei chou," Chlu-an T'ang shih (ed. of Fu-hsing shu-chu, Taipei, 1967), han 9, ts'e 4, ch. 3, p. 15a.

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92 Journal of the American Oriental Societv 102.1 (1982)

dizzy height, to rest against the Silver Han [or 'Sky Han,' i.e., our Milky Way] in the blue vault."

This ch'ing series is paralleled by a more intense one, using pi "deep blue; indigo; cyan" (occasionally "dark green" in context, following the pattern of ch'ing). In this set we find not only such obvious constructions as pi _mn "clouds up in the indigo [sky]," but also the like of pi hsia, common in Taoist poetry, which signifies "aurora in cyan," that is, "faint pinkish clouds of dawn set against the deep blue firmament." Other comparable sets using different substitutes for ch'ing "blue" occur (e.g., ts'sang).

EDWARD H. SCHAFER

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

GLOSSARY

Chia Tao a $ chien men i ch'ing Han i ch'ing f ch'ing Han *

ch'ing i I *

ch'ing yun A- * Ch'uan T'ang shih 4 Hsuan-ch'eng SjA

huang a

k'ung ch'ing Li hai chi - ;

lu i ;fi mu pi V pi hsia pi yun shih ch'ing 7 -

shih lu ra

Sung Mu shao fu chih Mei chou it, ta ch'ing k -

t'ien shang . ?

ts'ang * Wang K'uei 1t

wu hsing _L T

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