Peng (mythology)

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Template:Short description

Template:Infobox mythical creature

A Peng (Template:Lang-zh) or Dapeng (Template:Zhi) is a giant bird that transforms from a Kun (Template:Zhi), a giant fish, in Chinese mythology.

Names

The Chinese logograms for peng and kun exemplify common radical-phonetic characters. Template:Zhp combines the "bird radical" Template:Lang with a Template:Zhp phonetic, and Template:Zhp combines the "fish radical" (Template:Lang) with a Template:Zhp phonetic.

Both the mythic Chinese Peng and Kun names involve word play. Template:Zhp was anciently a variant Chinese character for Template:Zhp in Template:Zhp, as in the ca. 100 CE Shuowen Jiezi; Template:Zhp originally meant "fish roe; fry; spawn" (ca. 200 BCE Erya).

Synonyms of Peng include Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp. Dapeng is also a place name for a few places in greater China, most notably in Shenzhen and Taiwan.

After recent fossil discoveries in northeast China, Chinese paleontologists used Peng to name the enantiornithine bird Pengornis and the wukongopterid pterosaur Kunpengopterus.

Etymology

Template:See also

Linguist Wang Li relates Template:Old Chinese "peng, fabulous great bird" to element Template:Old Chinese in Template:Old Chinese;<ref>Wang, Li (王力) (1982). Template:Lang (Dictionary of Word Families). Beijing: Commercial Press. p. 318. Cited in Schuessler, Axel (2007). ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. p. 239</ref> Template:Lang is also related to Template:Old Chinese "wind".<ref>Schuessler, Axel (2007). ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. p. 239</ref>

Literature

Zhuangzi

In Chinese literature, the Daoist classic Zhuangzi has the oldest record of the Kun Peng myth. The first chapter (Template:Zhi) begins with three versions of this parable; the lead paragraph, a quote from the Qixie (Template:Zhi, probably invented by Zhuangzi), and a quote from the Template:Transliteration (Template:Zhi, cf. Liezi chapter 5, Template:Zhi). The first account contrasts the giant Peng bird with a small Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp and the third with a Template:Zhp. The Peng fish-bird transformation is not only the beginning myth in Zhuangzi, but Robert Allinson claims, "the central myth".<ref>Robert E. Allinson (1989), Chuang-Tzu for Spiritual Transformation: An Analysis of the Inner Chapters, SUNY Press, 180.</ref> Template:Blockquote

Analysis and interpretations

Many Zhuangzi scholars have debated the Peng story. Lian Xinda calls it "arguably the most controversial image in the text, which has been inviting conflicting interpretations for the past seventeen centuries."<ref>Lian Xinda (2009), "Zhuangzi the Poet: Re-Reading the Peng Bird Image", Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 8.3, 234.</ref>

In traditional Chinese scholarship, the standard Peng interpretation was the "equality theory" of Guo Xiang (d. 312 CE), who redacted and annotated the received Zhuangzi text. Guo's commentary said, Template:Blockquote Some Chinese scholars gave alternate interpretations. The Buddhist monk Zhi Dun (314-366 CE) associated the Peng's flight with the highest satisfaction achieved by the Template:Zhp.<ref>Lian (2009), 234.</ref> Template:Blockquote The Chan Buddhist master Hanshan Deqing (Template:Lang, 1546–1623) also declares the Peng is the image of the Daoist sage, and suggests the bird's flight does not result from the piling up of wind but from the deep piling up of de "virtue; power".<ref>Lian (2009), 239.</ref>

In modern scholarship, some scholars reject Guo's "equality theory" construal. Lian differentiates contemporary interpretations between whether Zhuangzi was a radical skeptic and/or a relativist. Template:Blockquote Julian Pas concurs that "the true sage is compared to the enormous bird."<ref>Julian Pas (1981), "Chuang Tzu's Essays on 'Free Flight Into Transcendence' and 'Responsive Rulership'", Journal of Chinese Philosophy 8.4, 482.</ref> Angus Charles Graham sees the Peng as "soaring above the restricted viewpoints of the worldly."<ref>A.C. Graham (1981), Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters, George Allen & Unwin, 43.</ref> Allinson finds it "very clear and very explicit that the standpoint of the big bird and the standpoint of the cicada and the dove are not seen as possessing equal value."<ref>Allinson (1989), 44.</ref> Karen Carr and Philip J. Ivanhoe find "positive ideals" in the Peng symbolizing the "mythical creature that rises above the more mundane concerns of the word.<ref>Karen Carr and Philip Ivanhoe (2000), The Sense of Antirationalism: The Religious Thought of Zhuangzi and Kierkegaard, Seven Bridges Press, 100.</ref> Brian Lundberg says Zhuangzi uses the image to urge us to "go beyond restricted small points of views."<ref>Brian Lundberg (1998), "A Meditation on Friendship," in Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi, ed. by Roger Ames, SUNY, 214.</ref> Eric Schwitzgebel interprets, "Being small creatures, we cannot understand great things like the Peng (and the rest of the Zhuangzi?)."<ref>Eric Schwitzgebel (1996). "Zhuangzi's Attitude Toward Language and His Skepticism," in Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi, ed. by Paul Kjelberg and Philip Ivanhoe, SUNY Press, 71.</ref> Steve Coutinho describes the Peng as a "recluse who wanders beyond the realm of the recognizable", in contrast the tiny birds that "cannot begin to understand what lies so utterly beyond the confines of their mundane experience."<ref>Steve Coutinho (2004), Zhuangzi and Early Chinese Philosophy: Vagueness, Transformation and Paradox, Ashgate, 69-70.</ref> Scott Cook writes, "We are, at first, led by Zhuangzi almost imperceptibly into an unreflective infatuation with the bird."<ref>Scott Cook (2003), "Harmony and Cacophony in the Panpipes of Heaven," in Hiding the World in the World; Uneven Discourses on the Zhuangzi, SUNY Press, 70.</ref> Lian concludes the Peng is "An inspiring example of soaring up and going beyond, the image is used to broaden the outlook of the small mind; its function is thus more therapeutic than instructional."<ref>Lian (2009), 233.</ref> Bryan W. Van Norden suggests, "The likely effect of this passage on the reader is a combination of awe and disorientation."<ref>Van Norden, Bryan W. (1996), "Competing Interpretations of the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi," Philosophy East and West 46 (2):247-268.</ref>

Zhuangzi's Peng bird became a famous literary metaphor. Two early examples were the Template:Zhp by Dongfang Shuo (154 BCE – 93 CE) and the Commentary on the Water Classic (Template:Lang).<ref>Victor H. Mair, ed. (2002), The Columbia history of Chinese literature, Columbia University Press, p. 298.</ref>

Comparisons

In comparative mythology of giant creatures, Peng is similar to the Roc or Garuda and Kun to the Leviathan.

In Poetry

Mao Zedong invoked the name of Peng in his poem "Tingzhou to Changsha" (Template:Zh) in July 1930, to the tune of Template:Zhwiki by Ouyang Xiu of the Tang dynasty.<ref name="barnstone">Barnstone, William & Ko Ching-Po. 1972. The Poems of Mao Tse-tung. 1st ed. Harper & Ro.</ref>

《蝶戀花·從汀州向長沙·毛澤東》
六月天兵征腐惡，
萬丈長纓要把鯤鵬縛。
贛水那邊紅一角，
偏師借重黃公略。

百萬工農齊踴躍，
席捲江西直搗湘和鄂。
國際悲歌歌一曲，
狂飆為我從天落。

In June our soldiers of heaven fight against evil and rot.

They have a huge rope to tie up the Kun and Peng.

On the far side of the Gan waters the ground turns red under the strategy of Huang Gonglüe.

A million workers and peasants leap up joyfully and roll up Jiangsi like a mat.

As we reach the rivers of Hunan and Hebei, we sing the Internationale. It pierces us like a whirlwind from the sky.<ref name="barnstone"/>

The poem was written as the Red Army was about to attack Nanchang, but the attack would go on to fail. Huang Gonglüe was in charge of the right flank of the operation and would be killed in action in 1931.<ref name="barnstone" />

Notable people named Peng

Peng linguistically symbolizes "greatness; great promise; great accomplishments"; for instance, the idiom Template:Zhp means "have a bright/unlimited future". This character is commonly used in Chinese given names and several important mainland Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese politicians have Peng in their given names. In contrast, the character Kun (Template:Lang) is seldom used.

Mainland China:

Hong Kong:

Taiwan:

Southeast Asia:

Japan:

The Chinese character peng is pronounced hō in Japanese, as seen in the sumo ring names Taihō Kōki (Template:Lang), Hakuhō Shō (Template:Lang), Enhō Akira (Template:Lang), Daishōhō Kiyohiro (Template:Lang), Tokushinhō Motohisa (Template:Lang), Wakanohō Toshinori (Template:Lang), Kyokutenhō Masaru (Template:Lang) and so on. It is also used in company names, such as Taiho Pharmaceutical (Template:Lang).

See also

References

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