Inscribed on a Banana Leaf, Zhang Renbao

[lnhammer]

Imperial Recorder Zhang Ranbao always had talent and learning, from when he was young till he passed away. (After his death) he was sent from Chengdu to be interred in Langzhong, though his coffin was kept temporarily in Dongjin Temple. At his family’s home on Cold Food Day, they heard an urgent knocking on the gate. They went out and looked around, but they saw no one, except upon the gate there was a banana leaf inscribed with a poem. On Dragon Boat Festival, again they heard a knocking sound at the gate. His father looked out the cracked gate and saw his son, grown to perhaps 10 meters high, his feet not treading the ground, inscribing, “Upon the Double Fifth, the Mid-Sky Festival…” The inscription was not yet finished when his father opened the gate, and he immediately lost existence there.

On Cold Food Day, in every household smoke is quite forbidden.
In the birchleaf pears, the wind has dropped a small flowered hairpin.
The empty existence of today is the dream of a lonely soul
Who half-exists beside the Jialing River, half in Jinjiang.

题芭蕉叶上
作者：张仁宝
〈校书郎张仁宝，素有才学，年少而逝，自成都归葬阆中，权殡东津寺。其家寒食日，闻扣门甚急，出视无人，唯见门上有芭蕉叶题诗。端午日，又闻扣门声，其父于门罅伺之，见其子身长三丈许，足不践地，门上题五月五日天中节。题未毕，其父开门，即失所在。〉
寒食家家尽禁烟，
野棠风坠小花钿。
如今空有孤魂梦，
半在嘉陵半锦川。


TL;DR: “Bury me for real already.”

Untangling the geography a bit: Langzhong on the Jialing River is a district of Nanchong in northeastern Sichuan, with Dongjin (“east crossing”) Temple in Mianyang further upstream, while Jinliang is a district of Chengdu, central Sichuan—so while his body is not yet finally interred in his family graveyard, half of his spirit is still attached to his place of death. Cold Food Day, which honors the dead, is April 5 while the Dragon Boat Festival (also known as Mid-Sky Festival and the Double Fifth) is on the 5th day of the 5th lunisolar month, roughly two months later. Possibly relevant: one traditional food for the latter is zongzi, sticky rice with a stuffing wrapped with banana leaves then steamed—though then why deliver the banana leaf on Cold Food Day instead? (Or did the story get mangled?). Birchleaf pear is Pyrus betulaefolia, the hairpin is specifically a kind decorated with inlaid flowers, and the line that mentions those two is completely obscure to me.

Oh hey, another ghost who’s 3 zhang = 10 meters/30 feet high—that makes this a trope.

---L.

Comments

[sartorias]

Wow this one has obscurity all over it!

[(Anonymous)]

No gonna lie, I was expecting a poem written on a banana leaf to a lot more fun and a lot less head-scratch-y.

[lnhammer]

Welp, that was me, automagically logged out somehow.