Two small questions

[Mary-Ann]

Q1: What is the best english-to-chinese online dictionary in your opinion?

Q2: Could someone please help me translating this phrase: 是否襄王夢多﹐ 或是神女本無心?

Thank you!

[Quest]

Q2: Could someone please help me translating this phrase: 是否襄王夢多﹐ 或是神女本無心?

Usually: 襄王有夢，神女無心。(a famous metaphorical expression)

The background:

On the ritual day of sacrifice to the Goddess (神女) of Sex, the people of the Chu Kingdom (楚国) would spend their evening having group sex in the fields. 神女 herself resided in the Goddess Temple (神女庙) on Mount. Wu (巫山). On a ritual day, King Zhuang of the Chu Kingdom (楚庄王) visited Mount. Wu. He was a very handsome and talented ruler. 神女 really appeared and fell in love with him. They had sex that night.

Many years later, King Zhuang's descendent King Xiang (楚襄王) took over the kingdom, but he was a very incapable ruler; and by that time the Chu kingdom was on the verge of collapse. However, having heard the romantic story of 庄王 and 神女, 襄王 also wanted to meet 神女, so he went to 巫山 to seek her on the ritual day. On that night he dreamed about an erotic encounter with 神女, and on the next day he ordered one of his officials to write his dream down. But, everybody knew that it was just 襄王's dream, 神女 never appeared that day and never liked him.

Now people say "襄王有夢神女無心(Lit. King Xiang had a dream, but Shennu had no heart[not interested])" to describe the situation when a guy falls in love with a girl, but the girl does not love him back.

A related poem: 曾经沧海难为水，除却巫山不是云.

神女瑶姬(The goddess' real name) is 朝云暮雨 (she morphs into clouds during the day, and into rain during the night), so the clouds of 巫山 are the most beautiful in the world. 除却巫山不是云 --- any cloud outside of 巫山 cannot be called cloud.

In case you wonder here's a picture of the 巫山 clouds:

and here's 神女瑶姬

[klortho]

Wow! Quest, thank you for the amazing post!

I've tried to look up more information about 神女 on the net, and am not having much luck. Wikipedia seems not to have any references to her at all. Could you provide any links?

Chris

[skylee]

You do know that 神女 has another meaning, don't you?

[Lu]

Q1: see this thread

[stephanhodges]

I think Quest should put his post up on Wikipedia

[xiaocai]

You do know that 神女 has another meaning, don't you?

So skylee and Quest, is "云雨" this word originated from the story?

I suppose you have already known this.

[Mary-Ann]

I'm very thankful! 谢谢!

But what is the other meaning of 神女 ?

[skylee]

See item 57 of this webpage -> http://sisyphusism.tripod.com/books/KTM2.htm

娼 妓 中 文 有 很 多 叫 法 ， 神 女 、 校 書 、 賣 客 、 小 姐 、破 鞋 、 婊 子 、 煙 花 女 、 風 聲 賤 人 等 等 ， 不 一 而 足 。