Transcendental whistling () was an ancient Daoist technique of long-drawn, resounding whistling that functioned as a qigong or transcendental exercise. A skillful whistler could supposedly summon animals, communicate with supernatural beings, and control weather phenomena. Transcendental whistling is a common theme in Chinese literature, for instance Chenggong Sui's (3rd century) () and Ge Fei 's (1989) () short story. The most famous transcendental whistlers lived during the 3rd century, including the last master Sun Deng, and two of the eccentric Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, Ruan Ji and Ji Kang, all of whom were also talented zitherists.
Terminology The Chinese language has two common words meaning "to whistle": and . Word usage of (first occurring in the c. 10th century BCE Shijing, below) is historically older than (first in the c. 2nd century BCE Liji describing a pitch-pot's "wry mouth"). Both Chinese characters are written with the mouth radical and phonetic indicators of and . The 16-stroke character has graphically simpler versions of 14-stroke and 11-stroke , and an ancient variant character (with the yawn radical ).
Xiao The etymology of Old Chinese "to whistle: to croon" is sound symbolic, with cognates of Proto-Tibeto-Burman language *hyu or *huy "whistle" and Chepang language syu- "blow through (hand, etc.)".
This same onomatopoeic and semantic < "shrivel; contract" element is also used to write (with the bamboo radical ), (with the plant radical ), and (with the water radical).
The (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi dictionary uses to explicate ; defining as "to make sound by blowing", and as "to blow" (citing the Shijing 22, below).
The semantic field of in Modern Standard Chinese includes human whistling and singing (for instance: , , ), whistling sounds (, , ), animal sounds (, , ), Daoistic counterculture (, , ), and the present Daoist transcendental whistling (, ). Donald Holzman says "has a distracting range of meanings, clustered around the basic idea of 'producing sound through puckered lips', from the lion's roar to a man's whistling, passing through vocalization, chanting or wailing."
The unabridged Chinese dictionary defines two meanings for or : "Call out in a loud voice, issue a long, high-pitched sound", and "Protrude the lips and issue a long, drawn-out, clear, and far-carrying sound".
While the English lexicon has diverse whistling vocabulary, such as whistled language and whistle register, it lacks a standard translation equivalent for Chinese , literally "long whistle/whistling". Direct translations fail to denote the word's supernatural aspects: "whistling without a break", "long whistle", "prolonged whistle", and "long piercing whistle". Explanatory translations are more meaningful to English readers; the commonly used "transcendental whistling" was coined by Victor Mair and adopted by other authors (and many famous whistlers were "transcendents"). Some less common renderings are "cosmic 'whistling'", "Taoist mediative [sic] whistle", and "cosmic whistle".
Shao The semantic field of includes whistling sounds and whistle instruments (for instance, , , , ), birds (, , ), and (whistle-signaling) guards (, , ).
The common "whistle" term (for which can be written , , or ) refers to a type of shrill, forceful finger whistling that is often mentioned in traditional Chinese short stories and novels of the Ming and Qing periods as a kind of remote signaling or calling.
Textual examples The Chinese classics provide a means of tracing the semantic developments of from "wail", to "call back", to "whistle". The earliest usages in the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 BCE) "Classic of Poetry" described the sound of women expressing high emotion or grief. The Warring States period (c. 475 – 221 BCE) Chuci "Songs of the South" used and to mean a piercing whistle or call to summon back the spirit or a recently deceased person. The (1st century BCE) Liexian Zhuan "Collected Biographies of Transcendents" first associated transcendental whistling with Daoism, as represented by the Madman of Chu who mocked Confucius.
During the Eastern Han (25–220 CE) and Jin dynasty (266–420) and whistling became especially associated with Daoism. For example, the Hou Hanshu (82) biography of Xu Deng mentions his companion Zhao Bing whistling to call up wind. "On another occasion, he was seeking passage across a river, but the boat man would not take him. spread out a cloth and sat in the middle of it. Then with a long whistle he stirred up winds and whipped up wild currents which carried him across."
Later texts explain transcendental whistling as a Daoist inner-breath qigong techniques. Daoist meditation and healing use a breathing technique called that is practiced in various ways. The Six Breaths are , , , , , and .
Su calls the Six Dynasties (222–589) the "golden age of whistling". seems to have permeated all strata of Six Dynasties society, and practitioners included persons from almost all walks of life: recluses, hermit-scholars, generals, Buddhist monks, non-Chinese foreigners, women, high society elite, and Daoist priests. "In general, poets, hermits, and people of all types in the Six Dynasties utilized whistling to express a sense of untrammeled individual freedom, or an attitude of disobedience to authority or traditional ceremony, or to dispel suppressed feelings and indignation."
Ancient superstitions about whistling continue in Chinese folklore. In the present day, some Han Chinese consider it taboo to whistle in the house at night for fear of provoking ghosts, and similarly, the minority Maonan people and Kam people (mostly in South Central China) believe that whistling while working in the fields will invoke demons to damage the harvest.
Shijing The earliest recorded textual usage of or meant "wail" not "whistle". Three (c. 10th-7th century BCE) Shijing "Classic of Poetry" odes use xiao to describe heartbroken women expressing sadness. Since the ancient, lyrical language of the Shijing can be difficult to interpret, the English translations of James Legge, Arthur Waley, and Bernhard Karlgren are cited.
Two odes use along with . Ode 22 "The Yangzi Splits and Joins" is interpreted as concubines who were not allowed to accompany their bride to her new home, , translated as: Our lady, when she was married, would not come near us; Would not come near us, but she blew that feeling away, and sang. Our lady that went to be married, Did not move us with her. She did not move us with her, But in the end she has let us come. This young lady went to her new home, but she would not pass us on; She would not pass us on, but (now) crooningly she sings. Waley says the last words "are certainly corrupt" and suggests "allow to lodge". Karlgren explains "She can do nothing but croon (wail) and resign herself to it."
Ode 229 "White Flowers" uses to describe a wife whose husband is gone, : I whistle and sing with wounded heart thinking of that great man. Full of woe is this song I chant, Thinking of that tall man. I (crooningly) wailingly sing with pained bosom, I am thinking of that tall man. These translators agree that means "sing; song" but differ over whether means "whistle", "chant", and "croon; wail".
Ode 69 "In the Midst of the Valley are Motherworts" uses the graphic variant , interpreted as "groan", "sob", or "weep", describing another separated couple, : There is a woman forced to leave her husband, Long-drawn are her groanings. Bitterly she sobs, Faced with man's unkindness. There is a girl who has been rejected; long-drawn-out is her (crooning:) wailing. Based on these contexts, Su says means "to whistle" and is related to singing and chanting in general.
Bernhard Karlgren's detailed gloss concludes means "wail; groan" instead of "whistle". The Han version commentary says means "to sing without stanzas or (fixed) melody, i.e., "to croon", thus "When she croons she sings" = "crooningly she sings"; Zheng Xuan's commentary to the Mao version says it means "to compress the mouth and emit a sound", i.e., "to whistle", "When she whistles she sings (=) she whistles and sings". Zhu Xi says means or "wail; whiz". Karlgren notes that can mean either "to whistle" or "to croon; to wail"; citing the and .
Like the , Han and Six Dynasties texts frequently associated whistling with women expressing their sorrows. The "Biographies of Exemplary Women" has a story about a secretly wise "Girl from Qishi in Lu" (modern Zoucheng, Shandong). The girl was leaning against a pillar and whistling . Her neighbor heard and asked if she was whistling sadly because she longed for a husband, which the neighbor offered to arrange. The girl answered that she was not worried about getting a husband, but was worried because the ruler of Lu was old and but the crown prince was still too young. As the girl feared, Lu fell into chaos and was invaded by neighboring states.
Chuci The (c. 3rd century BCE – 2nd century CE) Chuci "Songs of Chu" uses to mean "call back (a dead person's soul)", monkey and tiger "calls; roars", and "whistle; call out".
The earliest textual example of meaning "to summon a spirit" is in the Zhaohun "Summons of the Soul", which describes a shamanistic ritual to resuscitate a recently deceased person by calling back their hun "spiritual soul that leaves the body after death", as opposed to their po "corporal soul that remains with the deceased corpse". This poem uses the compound with "shout; call" O soul, come back! And enter the gate of the city. Skilled priests are there who call you, walking backwards to lead you in. Qin basket-work, silk cords of Qi, and silken banners of Zheng: All things are there proper for your recall; and with long-drawn, piercing cries they summon the wandering soul . O soul, come back! Return to your old abode. Wang Yi’s commentary invokes yin and yang theory. " has characteristics, and has characteristics. governs the spiritual soul, and governs the animal soul. Thus, in order to summon the whole being, one must . Karlgren translates "Long-drawn I (croon:) wail". David Hawkes notes that the Yili ritual handbook section on "soul-summoning" does not mention the shamanistic "whistling" found in the , and suggests that the Confucian ritualist who compiled the text "evidently did not expect this somewhat perfunctory soul-summoning to be successful." The says the soul-summoner should take a suit of clothing formerly worn by the deceased, climb a ladder to the roof, stretch out the clothes, get up on the roof ridge, and "call out three times in a loud voice, 'Ho, Such a One! Come back!" Then he hands the clothing down to an assistant, who puts it on the corpse for viewing, and then the summoner climbs back down.
"Summons for a Recluse" uses describing the calls of . The cassia trees grow thick In the mountain's recesses, Their branches interlacing. The mountain mists are high, The rocks are steep. In the sheer ravines The waters' waves run deep. Monkeys in chorus cry; Tigers and leopards roar . One has climbed up by the cassia boughs Who wishes to tarry there.
"Reckless Remonstrance" uses for a tiger's "roar", among examples of "correlative resonance". Like sounds harmonize together; Creatures mate with their own kind. The flying bird cries out to the flock; The deer calls, searching for his friends. If you strike gong, then gong responds; If you hit jue, then jue vibrates. The tiger roars, and the wind of the valley comes ; The dragon soars, and the radiant clouds come flying.
"Sighing for Olden Times", which is attributed to the editor Liu Xiang, uses meaning "whistle; call out".