Bashe
Bashe (Chinese: 巴蛇; pinyin: bā-shé; Wade–Giles: pa-she) was a python-like Chinese mythological giant snake that ate elephants.
Name
The term bashe compounds ba 巴 "elephant-eating snake"[1][a] and she 蛇 "snake; serpent".
The
Bashe not only names this mythical giant reptile but is also a variant Chinese name for the South Asian ran 蚺 or mang 蟒 "python" (and South American "boa constrictor" or African "mamba"). "Mythical draconyms often derive from names of larger reptilians", says Carr[2] and "Since pythons usually crush their prey and swallow them whole, one can imagine Chinese tales about southern ran 蚺 'pythons' being exaggerated into legendarily-constipated bashe 'giant snakes' that ate an elephant every three years". In literary usage, bashe is found in the four-character idiom bashetunxiang 巴蛇吞象 (lit. "ba-snake gulping down an elephant") meaning "inordinately greedy; extremely insatiable".
Early textual occurrences
The earliest references to the legendary bashe 巴蛇 are in the Chuci and Shanhaijing, two
The
Where are the hornless dragons which carry bears on their backs for sport? Where is the great serpent with nine heads and where is the Shu Hu? Where is it that people do not age? Where do giants live? Where is the nine-branched weed? Where is the flower of the Great Hemp? How does the snake that can swallow an elephant digest its bones?
— tr. Hawkes[4]
The
The Big Snake eats elephants and after three years it disgorges their bones. Gentlemen take a dose of this snake so that they will never have heart disease or illnesses of the belly. The snakes of Bigsnake country are green, or yellow, or scarlet, or black. One author says the black snakes have a green head. The land of Bigsnake lies west of Rhinoceros country.
The Shanhaijing commentary by Guo Pu (276–324 CE) compares the ba snake with the southern ran 蚺 "python", which after eating a large animal can wind around a tree trunk and expel the bones from between its scales and notes they could grow up to a length of 100 xun 尋 (about 270 meters). Guo's commentary likewise notes this exaggerated length for the changshe 長蛇 "long snake" that the Shanhaijing locates on Daxian 大咸 Mountain "Mount Bigwhole":[7][8] "There is a snake here named the long-snake; its hair is like pig bristles. It makes a noise like a nightwatchman banging his rattle".
The 1578 CE Bencao Gangmu entry for ranshe 蚺蛇 "python" mentions the bashe:
The Shan-Hai-Ching says that pythons can eat elephants, the bones of which they emit every three years. Gentlemen who take these bones as medicine never suffer from heart or visceral ailments. They are referred to as Pa She, that is the great snake.
— tr. Read[9]
Compare how the Shanhaijing description of the ba-snake's
The
See also
Notes
References
- ^ Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi, vol. 15, "radical 巴"; quote: (巴：蟲也。或曰食象蛇。象形。), rough translation: "巴 (bā): an animal. Some say [it is] a snake that eats elephants. A pictogram." Note: "animal" is a semantic shift from "worm, bug, insect"; see "entry 蟲" in Ministry of Education Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (《教育部國語辭典》)
- ^ Carr 1990, p. 167.
- ^ Qu Yuan & Hawkes 1985, p. 126.
- ^ Qu Yuan & Hawkes 1985, p. 128.
- ^ Birrell 2000, p. 136.
- ^ Schiffeler 1978, p. 97.
- ^ Birrell 2000, p. 40.
- ^ Schiffeler 1978, p. 109.
- ^ Read 1934, p. 112.
- ^ Eberhard 1968, p. 84.
- Birrell, Anne (2000). The Classic of Mountains and Seas. Penguin.
- Carr, Michael (1990). "Chinese Dragon Names" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 13 (2): 87–189.
- Eberhard, Wolfram (1968). The Local Cultures of South and East China. E.J. Brill.
- Qu Yuan; Hawkes, David (1985). The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets. Translated by Hawkes, David. Penguin.
- Read, Bernard E. (1934). "Chinese Materia Medica VII; Dragons and Snakes". Peking Natural History Bulletin. 8 (4): 279–362.
- Schiffeler, John W. (1978). The Legendary Creatures of the Shan hai ching. Hwa Kang.
External links
- 巴, ancient Chinese characters for ba
- Search results for 巴 in all texts, Chinese Text Project