The Bamboo of the Xiang Ladies

Tears Spotted on Bamboo

Ehuang and Nüying wept for Emperor Shun until tears spotted the bamboo — the mottled bamboo of Hunan.

When Emperor Shun dies on his southern tour and is buried at Mount Jiuyi beneath the Nine Doubts, his two wives Ehuang and Nüying gaze south and weep until their tears fall upon the bamboos of the Xiang River, each drop hardening into a dark spot. The mottled bamboo has borne the name Xiangfei Bamboo ever since. The sisters then cast themselves into the river and become its goddesses; in the Nine Songs of Chu, the Lord and Lady of the Xiang are remembered as the same grieving pair, and the spotted bamboo still carries their story in every stain.