Ascend! The Floating Raft! —— The Evolving Imagery of “Fu Cha” in Chinese Culture
Written by: Wang Jingyu
…There is a giant raft floating in the West Sea. It’s shining at night and getting extinguished during daytime. People who live close to the sea look at the light. The raft keeps flickering as stars, appearing in unstable size.
——East Jin Dynasty, Wang Jia(？-390), Record of Gleanings
The previous article tried to explore the origin and changing symbolism of the “Ship of Fools” in Western culture. This article then turns the perspective back to China. In Chinese culture there is also a boat that has its own name, “Floating (Fu) Raft (Cha)”. There are many variations of the term in Chinese including “Fu Han Cha”(floating on the Milky Way), “Xing Han Cha”(Xing Han also represents the Milky Way with stars), “Xing Cha”(“Xing” means stars) and so on. Most of these variations are simply replacing “floating” with another character meaning the Milky Way as in the imagination of the Chinese ancients heaven is a river floating with stars and it is connected to the ocean at the end of the sea, a plain interpretation according to visual experience. The raft drifting in the sea will eventually reach the Milky Way.
The word “Floating Raft” could be used as a noun or a verb depending on the context. According to the dictionary, the word “raft” refers to boats in primitive forms. In most cases, it is just depicted as a tree trunk. The emphasized primary feature of this raft is consistent with ancient Chinese aesthetics which appreciate utter understanding of nature as the highest realm. The Chinese character “cha” (raft) itself has the meaning of a tree trunk with intertwined branches. “Cha” relates to the verb meaning “cut”. Probably in order to retain a certain degree of identification, The Chinese character for this raft obtained a later visualization in the pictographic indication of the character. “Cha” looks like a raft made of twisted tree trunks.
“Cha” in Xiao Zhuan, a character with many branches protruding [1]
This can be traced back to a record in Volume 10 of the “Encyclopaedic Narration“ written by Zhang Hua in the Western Jin Dynasty for the earliest appearance of the “Floating Raft” in the text. It is said that there is a strange raft appearing upon the sea every August. One day an ambitious man gets aboard the raft with enough food and further builds a cabin. In ten days, the man traveled on the raft all the way to the Milky Way and enjoyed the sight of the stars passing by which was followed by a period of getting lost in space and time. At the end he arrived at a place which is quite like the mundane world where he came from. After consulting the master Yan Junping after the man’s return, it turns out that the place he has visited is Altair, a famous star in Chinese folk culture. Another note of the raft is the quotation at the very beginning of the article, written by Wang Jia who lived in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The two notes are not far apart on the timeline but the one by Wang Jia is more wildly imaginative. Wang names the raft in a literary style by connecting “raft” with “Moon” and “Star”. He also imagines that the suddenly brightened light radiated by the raft up in the sky is because a group of feathered immortals was gargling with dew. Similar to the raft in Zhang Hua’s book, the giant raft also follows a certain natural cycle. Both texts give the credit to the story to seaside residents. This has the impact of increasing the credibility of the narration, presenting the narration as essentially mythical ponderings or musings.
Image of Floating Raft, The Ink Garden of Mr. Cheng, Ming Dynasty
After these two earlier notes, a further imagination on this raft during the Middle Ages was the introduction of another historical figure, Zhang Qian, into the context, leading to a new image of “Zhang Qian taking the floating raft“. Zhang Qian is famous for his exploration of the South China Sea Silk Road in the Han Dynasty. Therefore, this emerging image is regarded as far-fetched considering that rafts were not necessary means of transportation for Zhang’s expedition. One possible explanation for this stretched imagination is that people would imagine the new world as mysterious as the ocean is mysterious. Therefore, only the mythical raft could assist the explorer to overcome unpredictable obstacles. In addition to Zhang Qian, the mythical raft was also interpreted as the vehicle of Yan Junping (Yan Zun), the master appearing in the story cited earlier. One astronomical work of the Tang Dynasty once described a flying machine made of bronze and iron as the “Yan Zun Mythical Raft”.
In some of the mythical stories of Wei Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the raft has even been transformed into a mischievous spirit. Local people need to build up the temple and pray to the raft spirit in exchange for its blessing and protection. When it came to the early Tang Dynasty, Luo Binwang, one of the four paragons of the Early Tang, wrote a poem entitled “Floating Raft” together with a noteworthy preface, in which Luo drew an analogy between talents and the floating trunk in order to probe into the situation of talents, a theme that could be traced back to the era of Chuang tzu. Up to that time, the raft has become a metaphorical object in writing poems. And because of the prevalence of poetry writing during the Tang Dynasty and the tradition of using allusion, the meaning of this particular image was tremendously diversified in text. The “Floating Raft”, together with a similar image, the solitary boat, are actually the self-image of the Chinese Literati. What the boats carry are always the hearts yearning for the escape into the utopian fantasy world because of feeling despair at the harshness of reality. As the mainstream literary genre changes with the transition of the political and cultural environment for each dynasty, the image of a group of “Floating Raft” was composed of many variations and found its way to be incorporated into the new genres ranging from poetry of the Tang Dynasty, the song poems of the Song Dynasty, the operas of Yuan Dynasty, the drama of the Ming Dynasty and the novels of the Qing Dynasty. The thematic vibration of the term “Floating Raft” could represent the imagination of the higher being or the people who travel to the Heavenly world. It came to signify life paths like becoming an official in the government. It also alluded to themes like fleeing from war. It also could simply be used to name a houseboat.
We should be satisfied with grouping the similar terms and summarizing their indications, however. Unveiling the text and freeing it from the shade of textual representation, it could be found that in essence, the raft also came to be associated with Confucius who made the famous statement “Since my way (doctrine) is making no headway, I shall get upon a raft and float out to sea.” In the original Chinese text the character used by Confucius is different from the “raft” in the term “Floating Raft” but they could be used interchangeably. Another important reference is the motif established by the Verses of Chu, a poetry collection of Chinese poetry attributed mainly to the politician and poet Qu Yuan (?340–278 BCE) who lived in the period of the Warring Kingdoms (The Three Kingdoms). Qu Yuan is regarded as one of the significant forefathers of poetry in China. In the very beginning of the poetry collection, Qu expresses his fervent desire of floating upwards thus getting away from the disappointing or fallen world.
Detesting time’s deepening decadence,
I would rise free, and journey far away;
but my substance is unfledged, too weak
to harness for flight and floating upwards.
——The Far Journey, Qu Yuan
Both Confusius and Qu Yuan had experienced political frustration and the gesture of travel afar, no matter towards the sea or upwards to heaven, conveyed this disappointment and grief as well as the unshakable aspiration of better things ahead in an unseen world to come. Their influence on the whole group of Chinese literati is so heavy that the desire of “floating” afar haunted Chinese literature between the lines in the text for thousands of years. What the literati allude to, or expect the reader to recall when they cite the term, is probably the images of a literati as idealized as Confusius or Qu Yuan. Compared to the “Ship of Fools” consisting of people who are forcefully expelled by the authorities, the “Floating Raft” is used usually by the literati class to project the spiritual status of self-exile, a self-response in reaction towards being politically marginalized.
Therefore, the establishment of the image of the “Floating Raft” could be re-interpreted embodying the desire and spirit experienced by the protagonist in the poem The Far Journey when he was desperate for a medium for him to “harness flight and float upwards”. Flight and floating upwards then becomes of much use to the poets when they would like to express a political reference. Take the image of “Zhang Qian riding the raft” as an instance; it reveals the complexity of this reference since Zhang Qian’s travel, contrary to that of Qu Yuan, is prompted originally as a political task and finally leads to success after his return [2]. Paradoxically, the rough “raft” reconciles in its image the two extreme feelings or ideas of the eternal dilemma between going “into the world” and achieving results and travelling “out of the world” and grasping the big picture. Specific terms that capture this well are esoteric and exoteric. Exoteric is an image as it appears on the outside. Travelling out of the world will provide an exteric and precise description of the world after leaving it. Esoterism, on the other hand, is the understanding of the world or image that results from going into it. Going into the image itself changes the image because one is now part of it and not separate from it. This understanding of an image is felt, seen only in parts, interpreted and described but lacks the coherent picture of the image as a whole. This is the image as experienced and felt. This is also the experience of achieving results because by going inside the image one changes its nature and its appearance. This is the dilemma often faced by the ancient Chinese literati class between going into the world or travelling outside of it.
The word that specifies the raft really describes an “image”. Most of the discussions above are limited within and by text, however. The counterpoint of “image” in Chinese actually refers to a set of multidimensional knowledge, and therefore makes the word raft a “schema”, a perceptual unit/database of correlated information/knowledge[3]. Image can be more than just visual – it can mean the visual representation of a set of multi-dimensional knowledge. This seems somewhat more appropriate to play the balancing role between the yin and yang of esoteric understanding and esoteric (or scientific) description.
The raft has been imbued with visual elements since its very first appearance. Accompanying the continuous embodiment of various cultural references, it is natural that the schema “Floating Raft” possesses more alternates that encompass other art forms. In painting, there is a well-established pattern, or schema, named as “The immortals riding the raft”. Under most circumstances, the artist uses the pattern’s name as the title of the painting to signify the linkage to a common motif, an action that could be regarded as the visualization of the normal practice of quoting authoritative works in writing classical Chinese poetry. The study on the painting with the same theme of “Floating Raft” also shows the transformation of the treatment on this common schema with the change of time, which in turn, reflects the changing characteristics of times. Both the number of passengers and their identities vary in different scenarios. The secularization of the religions of Taoism and Buddhism during the Tang and Song Dynasty might be the reason that the Taoist immortals and Arhats (One ideal of the Buddha) replaced the seaside residents as the protagonists for the image and vocabulary of the “Floating Raft”. Each passenger could also be a lonely and depressed scholar. In one painting there are two rafts appearing at the same time, carrying a group of elderly immortals in a lively conversation, who are said to be the gods of longevity. Female figures also start to emerge despite themselves being the emissaries of Heaven. The gifts and antiques on the raft symbolize the intention of sending good fortune and blessings. Whereas the various identities of the protagonists could be recognized by the clothing, the objects carried by the raft or even the pencraft of the painter, the image of the raft itself has not been changed too much. The primitive simplicity, which is the key feature of the raft, is also the core identity of this schema.
Li Gonglin (1049–1106), Northern Song Dynasty
Anonymity, Yuan Dynasty
Immortal Sailing Across The Ocean On A Raft
Sheng Zizhao, Yuan Dynasty
Guan Si, Ming Dynasty
Shen Zongqian(1736—1820), Qing Dynasty
Immortal On A Raft
Ren Bonian (1840–1895), Late Qing Dynasty
Ding Yu, Qing Dynasty
Left：Immortal On A Raft
Fu Ru, Late Qing Dynasty
Right: Immortal On A Raft
Pan Zhenyong, Late Qing Dynasty
Immortal On A Raft Delivering Wishes for Longevity
Guan Nianci, Late Qing Dynasty
What’s more important, the transformation of the motif of “Floating Raft” in classical Chinese painting implies that a new pattern based on the raft has been formed. Many cultures call this “as above so below”. This is the notion that things on earth reflect similar actions in the heavens. In fact, this is expressed in one of the song poems in the Song Dynasty. In the work that serves as offering birthday congratulations, the writer describes a spectacle in the heavenly world where immortals reside so as to reflect the grand birthday banquet above. The medium for the immortal people to reach the sacred mountain in the wonderland is in fact this very heavenly raft. In addition, as late as in the Southern Song Dynasty, the pattern of the raft has been utilized to decorate craftworks. During the Song Dynasty it became popular to decorate mirrors with the image of some immortal riding the raft on the ocean. The development of the handicraft in the following dynasties after the Song Dynasty brings the image further into appearance, in multitudinous craftworks ranging from imperial tributes to daily utensils. An inconsistent uniformity also exists in terms of the emblems of these images of rafts in craftworks. Some of them are the rare curios placed by the scholars on their desks to symbolize their high-minded ambitions while some of them are simply birthday gifts.
A Mirror Carved with Immortal On A Raft
Southern Song Dynasty [4]
Zhu Bishan, Yuan to Ming Dynasty
A Blue And White Conical Cup with Decorative Scene of “Zhang Qian reclining in a log raft in a moonlit river”
Ming Dynasty
A Bonsai of Immortal On A Raft
Qing Dynasty
Immortal On A Raft (made of agilawood)
Qing Dynasty
An Ink-stone Screen with Jade Carving of Immortal On A Raft
Qing Dynasty
Up to this stage, a semantically rich set of knowledge concerning the “floating raft” has first been built up in literature and later in the use of iconographic images on household items. The imagery is created, imagined, re-imagined through associations with different cultural elements, derived and differentiated, and absorbed into different cultural genres. The “raft” keeps evolving from pure immortal imagination originated from folklore to a medium of use to the literati, and subsequently becomes part of the system of intrinsic patterns that engage with people’s daily lives. The original “raft” in “Record of Gleanings” that strongly reminds us of the modern spaceship no longer shines in an unearthly way. It is instead loaded with more realistic feelings and secular purposes. The evolution of this imagery is roughly the same as the ancient immortal imagination in Chinese culture in a broad sense. The refinement of the details of the imagined heavenly world makes the original space full of chaos and unrestrainedness into an unimaginative copy of the real world. The symbol of the “Floating Raft” is becoming rigid, stereotypical or even perfunctory and the imaginative treatment of the image became abandoned at some point. The wild fantasy in “Record of Gleanings” is as ephemeral as a meteor shower.
But the situation shifts when it comes to the contemporary era. A newly generated linkage between the “Floating Raft” and the “immigrants” endows the imagery with more potential to speak to modern realities. Commissioned by the National Gallery Singapore, Chinese artist Cao Fei has created a kinetic sculptural installation entitled “Fu Cha” in 2020.[5] The title takes its reference from the mythical boat while the appearance of the boat was drawn from the Chinese boats floating along the Singapore River. The installation provides audiences theatrical experiences of the voyage in stormy ocean thus to arouse their empathy with the immigrants who once embarked a treacherous voyage just for better lives. Through this artwork, the old-fashioned fantasy was brought into the context of contemporary realities considering that the installation not only draws a silhouette of the Nanyang immigrants but also reflects a status of unrest confronted by a globalized world.
Cao Fei, “Fu Cha”, 2020, kinetic sculptural installation
Taking Cao’s artwork as an example, the new narrative of contemporary art has undoubtedly opened up new possibilities for the “Floating Raft” as an imagery. We do have more scientific knowledge about the sky, the ocean and the cosmos, which allows us to easily prove that most of the ancient myths are naive and absurd. Nevertheless, the known keeps generating much more unknown. Human beings are far from omniscient. In essence, the “Floating Raft” represents a gesture of exploration towards the far beyond. To fuel the raft is thus to reactivate this ancient boat and make it into a contemporary solution for us to embrace the complexity of the present and the future.
Reference:
[1] https://www.zdic.net/zd/zx/xz/%E6%A7%8E
[2] http://www.yidianzixun.com/article/0P7aZLpU
[3] https://www.douban.com/note/620459138/
[4] http://epaper.gmw.cn/zhdsb/html/2015-04/08/nw.D110000zhdsb_20150408_2-15.htm
[5] https://www.zaobao.com/zlifestyle/culture/story20200130-1024800