Wrongly called in the Western world
Who was “Yufen Chun” in ancient China?
His family name was “Chun”. His second name was “Yufen”. In the English world, he was sometimes wrongly named as “Chunyu Fen”. An example is the Wikipedia post entitled “The Governor of Nanke”.
A character in a legendary work
“Yufen Chun” is a character in a legendary work of the Tang Dynasty. The work is entitled “The Biography of Nan Ke”. In the English world, it is commonly known as “A Fond Dream of Nanke”. The author of the work is “Gongzuo Li”. He was a legendary writer. His work is a short story written in classical Chinese. It belongs to popular literature in the Tang Dynasty.
The story reveals the life of the corrupted officialdom in those days. It mocks the pursuit of fame and fortune. That was done by the dream of an official of the Tang dynasty. He was a disappointed scholar and military man. He was “Yufen Chun”.
The popularity of this story has made “A Fond Dream of Nanke” a euphemistic term for the fickleness and emptiness of materialistic life.
The story, translated into English, was quoted in pages 144 to 145 of the book of Wuchi Liu. The book is called “Introduction to Chinese Literature”. It was a 1966 book and was reprinted in June 1990 by Praegar. The story was told through a third person.
Governor of the Southern Tributary State
The story was reproduced below:
“Governor of the Southern Tributary State”
“One day, as [Yufen Chun] lay in a drunken stupor, he was taken by two purple-clad messengers down a hole under a big ash tree in the courtyard to the Kingdom of Ashendon. There he was given in marriage to the king’s beautiful daughter and made the governor of Nanke, the Southern Tributary State (literally, the Southern Bough).”
“The officials of the state, monks and priests, elders, musicians, sedan-carriers, guardsmen, and carriage drivers with bells clanging, all came out to greet him. People thronged and bustled about. Bells and drums made a loud din for miles around. A splendid array of turrets and pavilions, temples and monasteries, enveloped in a festive atmosphere, came into view as he entered the great city gate, above which were inscribed in big gold letters: ‘The Southern Tributary State.’”
“He remained there for twenty years as a governor and was well liked by the people that monuments were erected to extol his virtue and temples built for sacrifice to his living spirit. Fame and success crowned his public life with five sons and two daughters blessed him at home. But at the zenith of his careers, troubles and sorrows started to creep in. He was afflicted by the defeat of his army by that of a neighbouring kingdom, the death of his wife, and the false accusations of a court enemy, which led to the king’s animosity toward him. Deprive of attendants, isolated from friends, and confined to his house, he sank into a deep grief until one day he was sent back to the mortal world, accompanied by the same purple-clad messengers, taking the same road, but in a shabby carriage without the paraphernalia of his former journey. When he reached home, he saw his other self lying in the eastern verandah of the hall; suddenly frightened, he woke up from his dream.”
“Later, when he told it to his friends, they made a search of the hollow under the ash tree, where after much digging and cleaning, they found a big hole, ‘clear and well lighted and large enough to hold a couch. Above it were mounds of earth shaped like city walls, towers, and palaces, in which gathered swarms of ants. On one ant hill was a small tower, reddish in colour, where lived two huge ants, three inches long with white wings and red heads. They were flanked on both sides by scores of big ants so that the others dared not approach them. These huge ants were the king and queen, and this was the capital of Ashendon.’ To its south lay another ant hill with smaller towers, which he identified as his Southern Tributary State. That same night there was a fierce storm and in the morning when he looked again at the holes, the ants had all gone.”
Epilogue.
The story ends with a quatrain:
“Noblest is his official position and rank,
Overwhelming is his power in the capital,
And yet, in the eyes of the wise men,
He is not much different from the dwellers in an ant heap.”
“Believing it to be quite genuine, I have compiled this tale for those who are curious. Although it deals with strange supernatural things and unorthodox affairs, it is intended mainly as an admonition to the ambitious. Let future readers not regard this tale lightly as a mere series of coincidences, and let them beware of taking pride in worldly fame and rank.”