 |
|
|
 Title: “A Great Beginning (A Flying Roc)” 鵬搏 Year: 1887 Volume: 13 Page Number: 45 Caption Translation: An ancient dictionary mentions many birds with different names, but almost nobody has ever observed them. Those in Korea are particularly rare. The other day, a Daoist monk named Jiangyuan felt that the sky was suddenly getting dark. He looked up and saw a huge bird soar over the horizon. Its wings could cover more than ten acres. When one of its feathers, over ten meters long, fell on the ground, it took two men to carry it away. Nobody knows this bird’s name, so we just call it a “roc” (peng) which means that it can travel for tens of thousands of miles, fly up to the highest point with ease, and reach a place in just a blink of the eye. I hope this bird can inspire us [to do great things]. |
Translator: Hiang Tiying Revised by Peter C. Perdue (cf. Cohn) Caption Text: 直隸某縣有一浮屠， 千餘年前故蹟也。 一日忽聞塔頂撲簌有聲， 人皆驚異。 已而頂上時有磚塊飛下， 於是共疑為怪， 不敢往覘。 有某者素以膽氣自矜， 乃鼓勇緣梯盤旋而上， 至極高處察之， 見一大鳥盤踞其中， 顧但見其足， 遂力持之， 將曳以下。 詎鳥鼓翼高騫， 竟將某曳入雲端， 飄飄欲墮， 某情急不敢下視， 惟極力抱其足。 鳥不能久持， 遂漸漸飛下， 至近地方釋手。 問之居人其地已距本？數百里， 乃求乞而歸。 聞其事者莫不咋舌。 View on Yale Visual Resources |
|
|  |
|
|
| illustrations from the 1898 edition of the Dianshizhai huabao, generously provided by the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2015 Visualizing Cultures  |
| “A Great Beginning” 鵬搏 1884 artist (Fu) Genxin (page 45) [dz_v13_046] |