A Round-Dance, [Two] Ghosts in the River

In 822 or 823, a person on the river beneath Guanque Tower in Shuncheng Park saw two ghosts, each perhaps 10 meters high and wearing the blue jackets and white pants (of a scholar), who linked arms and did a round-dance. The song stopped unexpectedly.

      The river water’s muddy, muddy—
      The mountain top grows buckwheat, barley.
Both the beard and grandchild come to the gate beneath:
The master’s brother’s wife is certainly one in a hundred.

踏歌
作者：河中鬼
〈长庆中，有人于河中舜城苑鹳鹊楼下，见二鬼，各长三丈许，青衫白裤，连臂踏歌，歌竟而没。〉
河水流溷溷，
山头种荞麦。
两个胡孙门底来，
东家阿嫂决一百。

In a round-dance, the dancers linked arms and sang while stamping feet to the rhythm. Guanque (“crane magpie”) Tower is to the west of what’s now Yongji, southwestern Shanxi, overlooking the Yellow River. Apparently because of the scenic beauty, it was known as a good place to suicide by drowning. Okay then. Meeting ghosts 10m tall (literally 3 zhang, a length of about 3.3m) was startling. I fully expected the third line, given the genre, but not gonna lie, that fourth line went someplace else entirely. The sister-in-law, who’s specifically an older brother’s wife, is called a-sao with a prefix indicating familiarity. The master could be an employer or landlord. I love the specificity of when this happened but not to whom.

---L.