* The folktales are numbered with ⓿, ❶, ❷ and so on for readers’ reference when reading the folktales mentioned in the article.

 

When Chiu Cheng-Hung’s The Balcony came into sight for the first time, I naturally thought of the scene when someone looked out from behind a railing. To look out from a railing is differently from simply looking around on the beach. When one looked out from the railing on the balcony – even though the balcony was tilted and looked rather obtrusive as if it floated and stranded on the beach – once the person (whether deliberately or unintentionally) stepped onto this man-made object, his or her position became marked and mapped out. A passer-by would become an “observer” because the railing clearly separated the person and the vista before him or her — therefore, the person would be placed on the spot of a “narrator” in the storytelling of oral tradition, and become immersed in the real-time panoramic image. Looking around, the person would see people standing up from the shallow water, and the water dripping from their body had vivified their skin. The person would also see people playing and moving things with their hands and feet, feeling their smoothness, stickiness and roughness. The cloudless sky would become so bright due to the sunlight and moonlight reflected by the sea surface, and he or she would need to partially cover their eyes with hands. The person looked out into the Pacific Ocean, just like all the people on the shore of western Pacific Ocean region would do. In the same or slightly different time zones, everyone on the shore would in turn witness the rising/birth of the moon from the vast sea. How would they respectively interpret the sea and moon then? What vocabularies and existing descriptions are already in their mind? How would they associate the sight with the everyday experience and memory to explain the complex feeling arising from seeing the particular sight? In the end, as this person stepped down the balcony, these observations would be stored in different ways as images from a wide range of memories, and eventually became materials and settings for stories they would be telling. The distinctive features of the surrounding landscape as well as phenomena in various events would then be translated through story plots and incorporated into stories to be told. 

 

“Birth”

Speaking of the moon rising from the sea (putting Zhang Jiuling’s poem aside), people on the seashore tend to think of childbirth when they see a glowing disc popping out from the horizon at the end of the sea—that is, the ocean becomes a mother giving birth to her glorious, sacred child. A folktale from the seaside region in Siberia describes newborns as “the baby with the moon on its forehead, or the baby with the sun on its forehead.” (⓿) A newborn child, like the rising sun and moon, indeed captures everyone’s eyes. However, there are more details in different folktales. People have noticed that the newly rising moon from the sea surface looks as if it were dipped in blood. According to Melanesians and Papua New Guineans, the newborn moon-child was placed on blood-soaked straw mattress, and therefore became red all over. The child consequently grew feathers from his body and turned into a red parrot before flying into the sky. The parrot moon-child, flying and perching from one palm tree to another, caused a problem one time and became hunted by people on the ground. The parrot moon-child kept running from one tree top to another, maintaining a certain distance from people. When he reached the last tree, the mother, hoping to save her child, cast the umbilical cord towards the moon-child, holding onto one end and asking her child to catch the other. Yet, the child grabbed the cord so hard that the mother was pulled up into the sky. Since then, the mother tied her child to herself, leading the moon-child with the umbilical cord in their procession. (❶)

 

The umbilical cord in the folktale, as a metaphor, is not simply a physical bond connecting the mother with the child. “To lead with the umbilical cord” indicates that one party moves in the direction dictated by the other party. The moving forward therefore is not a random and freewheeling action, but suggests discipline and order, and even being subject to external forces. In life, the mother’s leading her child is applied to explain the moving track of the rising moon in the sky. In a Korean folktale, the mother gave birth to the sun, moon, star and a nameless baby. After the last one got eaten by a tiger, the first three climbed up to a tall tree to avoid being eaten by the tiger. They implored the god in heaven for safety by asking him to “lower the silver gourd vines.” Being lifted into the sky, the three children then started to move in the tracks as they had been led. (❷) Who was this god that lower the silver gourd vines? In folktales from the Southeast Asian region, we often encounter rope-like objects being lowered to save the child, and it is usually the deceased mother that now resided in heaven. In addition to gourd vines, the cord can also be a gold chain, an iron cable or strong cotton rope. The child pulled up to the sky, who is later turned into the glowing object, becomes bound by the abstract mother-child cord in his glorious yet inescapable procession in the sky in the eyes of people in this world. 

 

“Contact”

The newborn moon looks enormous and almost reachable; even if humans cannot reach it, it seems to be extremely close as well. The moon of the night between July 27 and 28, 2018 was farther away from the Earth and was said to be the smallest full moon. However, in the eyes of insignificant humans, the moon popping out from the sea horizon still seemed within reach. Under the clear sky, the dark-colored basalt rocks of the moon’s topography form visible dark spots, which have been sometimes described as rabbits or giant trees in children’s books. In addition to the well-known Vietnamese folktale, “Chú Cuội,” which is about a man that climbs a marabutan tree and reaches the moon, there is also a Tungusic folktale told in the seaside region in Northeast Asia: a mother asked her daughter to fetch some water from the seaside. The girl arrived at the shore with a wooden bucket and ladle but started playing water. The mother was waiting impatiently and called out the girl’s name; and the sea king therefore heard the girl’s name and brought the girl into the sea. The girl left her wooden bucket on shore, and could only struggle to stay on the sea surface by holding tightly to the ladle. Fortunately, the moon happened to be rising from the sea and not yet into the sky. Seeing this, the girl used the ladle to hook onto a tree branch stemming from the moon surface, and flied into the sky, eventually turning into a shadow on the moon. (❸)

 

Regarding the illusory tangibility of celestial objects, we also need to revisit the legend about “the extremely low sky in the ancient time” told in the regions of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. In the ancient Paiwan story from Taiwan, it is told that two Paiwan women saw that the two suns in the low sky made the day harsh and lasting. So, one of them struck and poked the sky with a pestle while the other splash boiling water to one of the suns. Since then, the sky was elevated, and the extinguished sun became the moon. (❹) Human beings see the sky as a physical “dome” because when the sun, moon and stars move in the sky, they appear to remain a fixed distance from the Earth’s surface.1 Furthermore, the moon’s acceptable brightness suggests an approachable temperature; so, the moon is often described as being hugged and touched in folktales. Before we talk about different 21st-century designer lamps in the form of the moon in various counties, let’s first discuss another topic; and we could circle back to the moon’s touchable, moveable image. 

 

“Reflection”

Reflection is an intriguing mediation, and serves as a buffer zone for human perception and experience between the seemingly conflicting opposites—“touchable celestial objects” and “far-away, unreachable celestial objects.” There is a wide-spread, witty story in East Asia, which is about a man that tries to “capture” the moon. He uses a basin, a bowl, a cup or other utensil that can hold water, and fills the utensil to the point that the reflection of the moon perfectly fills up the liquid surface. However, there is more to the element of reflection. When celestial objects slowly rise in the sky in these folktales, there always seems to be a constant element: the reflection on water surface. In Text ❶ mentioned earlier in this article, the parrot moon-child perched on the top of the tree, his brightness was reflected by the water surface of a well. A girl who came to fetch water saw the reflection of the glowing parrot in the well and jumped into the well to catch it, only to get herself wet and returned empty-handed. In Text ❷, the tiger saw the reflection of the child moon in the well and reached out its paw to catch it. Its attempt was of course futile. Therefore, we can see that “the touchable” and “unreachable” are both incorporated and unified in the story—as the desire to reach is denied when the reflection of the celestial object is touched, the unreachable sacredness of the celestial object becomes validated (even though this sacred celestial object is still bound by a cord). In this regard, it is a common approach to use “reflection” to introduce divine or sacred characters in the stories. In “Age of the Gods, Part II” in Nihon Shoki (or The Chronicles of Japan), it is recorded that “before the gate there was a well, and over the well there grew a many-branched cassia-tree, with wide-spreading boughs and leaves. Now Hiko-hoho-demi no Mikoto went up to the foot of this tree and loitered about. After some time, the Sea God’s daughter, Toyo-tama-hime, appeared and, pushing open the door, came forth. She at length took a jewel-vessel and approached. She was about to draw water, when, raising her eyes, she saw him.” 2

 

“Covering”

In folktales, covering is used as a way to understand the lesser brightness of the moon and its waxing and waning. In a Carolinean folktale found in Micronesia, a rich man intended to make trouble for two poor young men, and demanded them to “move” the moon into his mansion for his own entertainment. One of the young men followed his mother’s instruction and brought a Pacific golden plover (Pluvialis fulva), a rooster and bush twigs to catch the moon. As they reached the sky, the young man found that the moon was heavily guarded. So, he began telling the guards stories until one by one they all fell asleep. The young man then covered the moon with multiple pieces of fabric and sneaked it back to the ground while the plover and the rooster diverted the attention of their chasers and tripped them with bush twigs. After the young man brought the moon to the rich man, he warned him that he should never fully remove the fabric and uncover the moon entirely. Driven by curiosity, however, the rich man removed the fabric piece by piece, and the moon became brighter and brighter. When the covering fabric was removed entirely, the moon then floated back to the sky. (❺). Now, if we revisit the story in ❶, we see that sometimes the mother wraps her moon-child with cloth and puts him into a basket when she drags him across the sky. This causes the light to be covered, and leads to the waning of the moon; and sometimes, the moon-child tries to escape and jumps out of the basket, causing the moonlight to become brighter; hence, the waxing of the moon. One thing should also be mentioned again: the approachable quality of the moon – its being imagined as moveable and touchable – is associated with the “covering,” which is an action that humans can perform on reachable objects. 

When discussing the covering of textile, one naturally thinks of the Paiwan legend told in kaviyangan tribe: the world used to have two suns. So, the ancestral god gave one of them a blanket and said, “sleep for a while.” In the context with one of the two suns turning into the moon, the latter is sometimes covered and consequently darkened by the covering of fabric, and sometimes poked (Korean folktale) or splashed with boiling water (❹) to decrease its brightness and heat. The covering and reduction, more or less, beckon at the acceptable brightness of the rising, glowing moon, as if there was once an incident that has caused the celestial object to be less harshly bright than when it was born. We are therefore reminded of our process of growing up when we might have, to a certain extent, covered and diminished ourselves so that people could feel at ease as we enter the social gaze. Contrarily, to completely remove the cover and shine brightly means the necessity to remain distant and secluded. People therefore need the mediation of “reflection” to balance the unreachable and the touchable to interact with such a glowing image.

 

1. Incidentally, the term “skyscraper” conveys the idea of “scraping” a solid surface, suggesting that the sky is a touchable surface.

 

「海生月民間譚」發想及其札記

文 楊雨樵
 

＊本文章中出現的民間譚（folktale）各文本，會在第一次出現時給予 ⓿、❶、❷ 等編號，以方便前後參照閱讀。
 

起初我看見邱承宏的《陽台》，自然而然想到憑欄眺望的事。憑欄眺望海洋，和單純站在沙灘上環顧四周相當不同。當我們憑欄眺望時，縱使所站的陽台傾斜，突兀，狀似漂流至此，只要有人（蓄意或不經意地）走到此人造物上，這人的位置就被標示，被圈劃。一個過路人將因為欄杆而被明指出自己與眼前景物之區隔，呈顯為一觀察者（observer）——如同一位口頭傳統（oral tradition）下的講述者（narrator）在故事中站立的位置——在那當下沈浸至一個即時環景圖像中。這人舉目觀察，看見玩水的人偶爾從淺海中站起，隨著水從身上滴落而肌膚輪廓變得清晰尖銳；看見人們以手腳去撥弄可及之物，感到光滑、濕黏與粗糙；看見晴朗的天空下因水面反射日月的波光刺眼而以手遮擋。這人眺望著太平洋，一如太平洋西側所有海岸上的人那樣眺望，在相近的時區內，每個岸上的人陸續看見月從海中升起／生出，這些人將會各自以什麼方式理解海與月？其腦中備有哪些詞彙與固有的敘述？怎麼以其日常生活的經驗與記憶去闡釋眼前景物給予自身的複雜感受？最後，隨著這人走下陽台，剛才一切的觀察被收攏到各種記憶的形象中，分別置放在不同的層次，成為基於各種前提的故事講述所需的材料與陳設。周圍景物的特徵與事件的現象，逐一通過情節被轉譯至即將講出的故事內。

 

「生產」

說到海生月（先將張九齡的詩句放一邊），實際上當位在海濱的人初次看見巨大的光體從海的盡頭浮出時，經常會想到生產：海洋作為母親生出美麗神聖的孩子。正如西伯利亞沿海區域，民間譚（folktale）中形容光輝的新生兒所使用的話語：「那孩子額上有月亮，那孩子額上有太陽。」（⓿）生出來的孩子，正如日出與月昇，吸引所有人的視線。不過民間譚還可以講得更加細緻，因為人們注意到從海面剛出生的月球，渾身有血。在美拉尼西亞與巴布亞新幾內亞的人說，剛出生的月－嬰孩，被放在因生產時吸飽產血的草蓆上，全身都染成了紅色。這孩子因而長出羽毛，變成紅鸚鵡，而離地飛起。在各棕櫚科的樹上或飛或停的鸚鵡月孩某次闖了禍，被地上的人們追緝。鸚鵡月孩不斷在樹梢移動，始終與人們保持固定的距離。直到最後一棵樹，月孩的母親為了搭救，就拋出月孩出生時的臍帶，自己抓住一端，孩子抓住另一端。可是孩子一使勁抓，就把母親整個甩到了天上。母親將月孩拽在身旁，以臍帶領著月孩前進（❶）。
 

臍帶在此，不只是關於母親與孩子物理上的相繫。「以臍帶牽引」，代表被牽引的一方正按照另一方的意志在前進：前進的動作並非隨意與散漫；而是規範與秩序，甚至受制於外力。生活中母親對孩子的牽引，被用來解釋月亮升起後在天空按照軌跡前進的現象。在朝鮮的民間譚中，母親生下了日、月、星與無名嬰兒。後者被老虎吃掉後，日月星三個孩子為了躲避老虎，爬到高高的樹上，且對天神呼求說：「請將銀瓜藤垂下來吧」，於是被銀瓜藤牽引至天上的日、月、星三個孩子，日後也按照牽引的軌跡前進（❷）。而拋下那銀瓜藤的天神是誰？在東南亞的民間譚中，我們經常看見拋下繩狀物救孩子的，無非是生活在天上的逝去的母親。除了瓜藤外，繩索在其他地區還分別以金鍊、鐵索、堅韌的棉繩等不同的形式出現。這些被拉到天上，成為光體的孩子，終日在母－子此一抽象的鏈鎖下，於塵世的人眼之上，光輝而無奈地飛行。
 

「接觸」

被生出的月亮如此巨大，彷若伸手可及。就算不可及，似乎也並不遙遠。在2018年七月二十七日與二十八日的晚上，就算當晚月球距離地球稍遠，被說是當年最小的滿月，在渺小的人類眼中看來，從海面升起的月亮仍然顯得像是可以抵達，可以觸碰。在晴朗的天空底下，月球表面由深色的玄武岩所形成的暗斑清晰可見，那暗斑整體有時——且如坊間的童書所言——被看作是兔子，有時被看作是大樹。除了越南著名的阿𥖩（chú cuội）抓著榕樹上月的民間譚之外，我們還要看見東北亞沿海地帶一則通古斯語的民間譚：一個母親使喚女孩去海濱提水，女孩手持木桶與木勺抵達海邊，卻玩起水來。母親等得不耐，打開門叫喚了女孩的名字。海王聽見此名，伸手將女孩抓入海中，女孩遺下木桶，緊抓著木勺在海面掙扎。幸而此時，月亮剛從海中升起，還沒朝天空飛去，女孩看準時機，以木勺勾住尚在水面運行的月亮表面長出的樹枝，跟著一起飛昇，成為天空月球裡的一塊暗影（❸）。
 

關於天體所引起的可觸之錯覺，我們也要看到東亞、東南亞至大洋洲區域所傳述的「古時天空極低」的說法。在台灣排灣族古老的故事中，兩位婦女見到天空那麼低，又有兩個太陽，晝夜不分，酷熱難受。於是其中一位婦女以杵撞天，另一個把滾燙的開水潑向另一個太陽。從此之後天空上升，而被潑熱水的太陽變成了月亮（❹）。會感到天空具有「穹頂」此一固體特徵，是由於日、月、星辰於空中運行的過程中，在肉眼看來始終與地面保持固定距離所造成１。另一方面，月球因亮度恰當，顏色提示出溫度宜人，因此常在民間譚中被擁抱、撫摸。正當我們想起二十一世紀初在不同國家、不同創作者底下各自設計出的月亮燈時，我們先繞到另一個主題，最後再於末段回到可以碰觸、搬運的月球形象。
 

「反射」

反射是個有趣的中介。它在「感覺天體可觸」以及「天體遠得不可觸」這兩個乍看衝突的特徵之間，於人類的感受和經驗中營造緩衝。在東亞有個流傳極廣的機智故事，差不多就是在說一個人以盆、碗、杯或其他盛水器具「摘」月的事情：讓月亮的倒影恰恰填滿容器中的液面。但其實尚不只如此，當天體相關的民間譚在漸漸升上高天的過程中，總是會出現「水面反射」的情節。在前面文本 ❶ 中，化為鸚鵡的月孩停息在樹梢，他光亮的身影投在井面，來打水的一個女孩看見發光的鸚鵡，立刻投身至井中要抓，結果弄得一身濡濕，又空手而回。於此同時，文本 ❷ 中，老虎看見月這個孩子的身影投在井面，多次以爪抓取卻徒勞無功。在此，我們可以看見「可觸」與「不可觸」在此情節中的調和：一個觸碰的欲望在接觸到水面的天體而幻滅的同時，天體本身神聖不可高攀的位置得以被確認（雖然此神聖天體仍得受到鏈鎖的拽引）。奠基於此，以「反射」將神聖的角色引薦至故事世界的做法，常見於神話當中。《日本書紀》〈神代下〉：「一書曰，門前有一好井。井上有百枝杜樹。故彥火火出見尊，跳昇其樹而立之。于時，海神之女豐玉姬，手持玉鋺來將汲水。正見人影，在於井中，乃仰視之。」2

 

「遮蔽」

遮蔽在民間譚中，用來理解月球何以亮度較太陽為弱，又何以盈虧。在密克羅尼西亞的加羅林語民間譚中，有個富有的人為難兩個窮小伙子，令他們去天上將月球「搬」到自己家裡去，以供賞玩。其中一個小伙子按照母親的指示，帶著鴴（此處指的是太平洋金斑鴴“Pluvialis fulva”）、公雞與灌木枝，冒險抵達天上。他發現月球被重重的守衛包圍，於是開始講起一個又一個故事，守衛們聽著聽著，逐一睡去。小伙子將月球的光線以布料遮蔽，偷偷帶回地面，追兵則分別被鴴、雞引開了注意，又被灌木枝絆住了腳步。小伙子將月球帶回後，勸告富有的人切勿將遮蔽月球的布料全都掀開。最後在好奇心驅使下，一片一片布料被揭下，月球變得越來越亮。當所有遮蔽被除盡時，月球飛昇回到天空（❺）。在這邊我們回頭看 ❶，當母親在空中拽著月孩前進時，有時會裹到布裡放到籃內，此時光線被遮避，為月虧；有時月孩掙脫出來，跳到籃外，此時光線大放，為月盈。此處我們還要想起稍早提及的：月球可搬運、可撫摸的近人特質，以便銜接「遮蔽」此一人類對身旁可及之物展開的動作。

當我們討論布製品的遮蔽功能時，自然會想到排灣族的 kaviyangan社所傳的說法：往昔太陽有兩個，因此祖神給其中之一棉被，並說：「請睡一下」。在兩個太陽其中之一成為月亮的前提底下，後者有時是因為布製品的遮蔽而變暗，有時是因為遭到戳刺（朝鮮半島）或遭滾燙的水淋（❹）而降低了亮度與熱度。這些遮蔽與減損，多少都在提示著明月升起時其明亮適中的程度，彷彿像是曾有一段遭遇，造成此天體不若剛誕生時那樣的明亮刺眼。不得不說在這樣的地方，我們多少也會想起自己作為一個人，在成長的過程中，如何因為遮蔽與減損，最後進入一個能讓眾人凝視許久，感到安心的狀態中；反之，完全除去遮蔽的光亮，則會遠離塵世，眾人需要透過「反射」此一中介，才能在不可觸的可觸中，與此形象產生交流。

 

1. 在此順便提及skyscraper（摩天大廈）此一名詞中，scrape這個對固體表面進行搔刮動作的元素，表達出天空可觸的表面。

2. 坂本太郎 等。《日本書紀》。日本古典文學大系。岩波書店。1993。

註. 在本篇文章中，民間譚（folktale）指口傳文學下的一種體裁，由一地區的專業或業餘的故事講述者從其他講述者處聽取後，再次講述的故事。該故事的內容至少包含兩個以上的事件，故事本身則在相對固定的敘事框架下，由多個情節串鏈而成。

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後記

當晚在台九線大武濱海公園海灘，我從這四個角度，帶來了數個民間譚的全文或片段，並夾雜以口傳歌謠的吟唱。舞者劉俊德在火光的掩映中捕捉話語在空氣中短暫明滅的姿態，樂手李世揚、林小楓和廖培伃則為語言的基底和外沿安插了聲響，擘畫出故事講述的場域。最後順帶一提的是，海生月民間譚活動的前夜，正是月全蝕發生的時刻。透過手機直播，我講述了在東南亞廣泛流傳的「狗食月」民間譚。由於狗（或其他掠食動物）的吞吃，月與日出現了蝕。這邊也可以看見布料的遮蔽造成的漸變，以及啃食造成的劇變，於民間譚的敘事情節中如何被清楚地區分開來。