Where Is the “Qujiang of Guangling” in Mei Sheng’s Qi fa? A Philological Investigation

What is it about?

More than two thousand years ago, the Han-dynasty writer Mei Sheng composed “Qi fa” (Seven Stimuli), a celebrated work of early Chinese literature. In one scene, a visitor tries to revive a sick prince by describing a series of thrilling experiences. The most striking of these is a dramatic vision of a tidal bore rushing up a river called “Qujiang of Guangling.” But where was this river? For centuries, scholars have tried to answer that question. Beginning in the Qing dynasty, philologists carefully examined historical texts, place names, and local traditions in an attempt to identify the exact location of Mei Sheng’s tidal bore. Some argued it referred to the Yangtze near Yangzhou; others believed it must have been the spectacular Qiantang River tidal bore, one of the largest in the world. This article retraces that long scholarly debate. Through close philological analysis, it shows how the search for a precise geographical location gradually became an exercise in increasingly hairsplitting argument. In the end, however, the power of Mei Sheng’s writing lies not in geographical accuracy but in literary craftsmanship. Like a goldsmith shaping precious metal, the author transforms natural spectacle into language that overwhelms the imagination. Through the transformative power of his words, Meisheng impresses and mesmerizes his audience with the sheer majesty of the tidal bore he evokes, rendering the philological hairsplitting over the real-world location of Qujiang largely irrelevant. In that sense, the scholarly hunt for the river may have been chasing something else entirely. For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

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Photo by Connor Dugan on Unsplash

Photo by Connor Dugan on Unsplash