The Water Mill and Northern Song imperial patronage of art, commerce, and science - China

The Water Mill as Literary Metaphor

Northern Song literature abounds in images of the water mill, revealing the great interest taken by both the Buddhist church and the ruling elite in aspects of the water mill other than monetary profit. A review of these diverse interpretations will demonstrate that the water mill was not only a symbol of economic and imperial power but also an embodiment of moral and spiritual values. An anecdote related by the twelfth-century Buddhist priest Xiaoying (d. after 1155) tells how a plaque reading "The Wheel of Dharma Forever Turns [falun chang zhuan]" on a temple-owned water mill in Shuzhou (modern Huaining, Anhui Province) inspired a Chan monk named Zhongdao with sudden enlightenment. And his enlightenment in turn led the abbot and the mill master of that temple to contemplate the movement of the water mill as a metaphor for the eternal turning of the Wheel of Dharma. (119) In Buddhist terminology, the Wheel of Dharma (falun) is a metaphor for the power of the Doctrine that overcomes all evil. The priest knowi ngly used the wheel as a visual pun to transform the mechanical movement of the waterwheel into the spiritual power of the Buddha.

Of equal interest are the interpretations that scholar-officials imposed on the water mill. "Record of the West Water Mill [Xi shuimo ji]" written by Yang Jie (jinshi 1059), chamberlain for ceremonies at the Shenzong court, is a firsthand account of the author's visit with his colleagues to the famous West Water Mill during the Mid-Autumn Festival of 1079 (the same one that Taizu visited in 965 and one of the first two water mill agencies that he established in 970). According to Yang, the West Water Mill was distinguished from the East and Datongmen Water Mills by the majesty of its surrounding scenery:

After the hosts and guests both arrived, they set bronze wine cups by the stream and dusted the rocks with their sleeves to sit down. Some fished in clear deep waters and fish would swim over for their bait; some played the zither and the gulls would remain docile and uninterrupted. The water was no more than a foot deep on the sand, so they could wade barefoot; a fishing boat was like a fallen leaf, so they could lie down when they got drunk. At a moment like this, both hosts and guests were happy and carefree, as if flying across the vast rivers and lakes and into the deep mountains and forests. How could they still remember the noise of carriages and horses on the metropolitan streets? (120)

By 1079 the state agency might have been long gone, but the West Water Mill remained a fashionable resort for government bureaucrats, as it had been for the first two Northern Song emperors. The setting described in Yang Jie's "Record of the West Water Mill" might almost describe the water mill in the Shanghai scroll, which appears to occupy an attractive suburban site.

"Rhapsody on a Water Mill [Shuimo ful]" is a long descriptive poem by Zhang Shunmin (ca. 1034-ca. 1110, jinshi 1065), investigating censor of Zhezong's court, composed in 1106-7 on a privately owned water mill he visited near Chang'an (modern Xi'an) as a potential buyer. (121) On approaching the mill, Shunmin found an excited crowd of onlookers watching the spectacle: