Title: The Nine Songs: A Study of Shamanism in Ancient China
Author: Yuan Qu
Editor: Arthur Waley
Publisher: City Light Books, San Fransisco, CA
Year: 1 January 1973
Length: 64 pages
From the Back Cover:
In ancient China the shaman was prophet, healer, dancer and singer, sometimes regarded an outcast, though treated always with high consideration. In these beautiful songs, known in China since at least the second century A.D., the always fleeting relationship of shaman and Spirit is seen as that of lovers. The typical form is this: first the shaman (a man if the deity is female, a woman is the deity is male) sees the Spirit descending and goes out to meet it, riding an equipage sometimes drawn by strange and mythical creatures. In the next part of the sonf the shaman's meeting with the Spirit (a sort of mantic honeymoon) is over. The spirit has provided fickle and the shaman wanders about love-born, waiting in vain for the lover's return. Between these two parts may have come the shaman's main ecstatic dance.
About the Author:
Arthur Waley (1889-1966) is highly regarded for his many translations of Chinese and Japanese literature.
MsSVig
Author: Yuan Qu
Editor: Arthur Waley
Publisher: City Light Books, San Fransisco, CA
Year: 1 January 1973
Length: 64 pages
From the Back Cover:
In ancient China the shaman was prophet, healer, dancer and singer, sometimes regarded an outcast, though treated always with high consideration. In these beautiful songs, known in China since at least the second century A.D., the always fleeting relationship of shaman and Spirit is seen as that of lovers. The typical form is this: first the shaman (a man if the deity is female, a woman is the deity is male) sees the Spirit descending and goes out to meet it, riding an equipage sometimes drawn by strange and mythical creatures. In the next part of the sonf the shaman's meeting with the Spirit (a sort of mantic honeymoon) is over. The spirit has provided fickle and the shaman wanders about love-born, waiting in vain for the lover's return. Between these two parts may have come the shaman's main ecstatic dance.
About the Author:
Arthur Waley (1889-1966) is highly regarded for his many translations of Chinese and Japanese literature.
MsSVig