Huánglíng miào jì 黃陵廟記
Record of the Yellow Ox Temple attributed to 諸葛亮 (Zhūgě Liàng, 181–234 CE) — attribution spurious; Ming-dynasty fabrication
About the work
A short prose text ostensibly composed by Zhūgě Liàng 諸葛亮 describing a visit to the Huáng Niú Temple 黃牛廟 (Yellow Ox Temple) along the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. The attribution is a later fabrication, with strong evidence of Ming-dynasty composition. The Huánglíng miào 黃陵廟 (Yellow Mausoleum Temple, also called Huáng Niú miào 黃牛廟) is a real site in the Three Gorges area associated with legends of the Yellow Ox who helped Yǔ the Great in flood control.
Abstract
The text is written in Zhūgě Liàng’s first person: he describes being recruited from his farm in Nányáng by Liú Bèi 劉備, traversing the Three Gorges road past the Yellow Ox site, seeing the striking landscape of “scattered rocks piercing the sky, crashing waves pounding the shore” (luàn shí pái kōng, jīng tāo pāi àn 亂石排空，驚濤拍岸), noticing three rock peaks in the river, marveling at flood-control engineering, then seeing in the cliff face an apparition of a divine image with headdress and robes like a painted figure, standing before a banner with a yellow ox to the right — evidently a guardian of engineering works. “Zhuge” concludes that divine assistance to Yu the Great is no mere legend, laments the ruined temple, and records that he restored it as the Huáng Niú miào (Yellow Ox Temple) to commemorate the divine merit.
Evidence of inauthenticity:
- Plagiarism from Sū Shì 蘇軾: The phrase luàn shí pái kōng, jīng tāo pāi àn 亂石排空，驚濤拍岸 is a near-verbatim borrowing from Su Shi’s famous Chìbì fù 赤壁賦 (1082 CE). Zhuge Liang (d. 234 CE) cannot have written text quoting an 11th-century author.
- Absence from pre-Song sources: No pre-Song bibliographic catalog or citation collection records this text under Zhuge Liang’s name.
- First-person voice: Authentic Han-Wei inscriptions and records attributed to officials do not typically employ this kind of first-person biographical framing.
- Shuofu transmission: The text circulates in Ming Shuōfǔ 說郛 compilations, a common vehicle for Ming-era fabrications and pseudepigrapha.
The underlying legend of the Huáng Niú / Huánglíng Temple is genuine and ancient; only this particular text is a fabrication.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- ctext.org search: https://ctext.org/search.pl?if=en&search=黃陵廟記