傅咸《櫛賦》“Rhapsody on the Comb” by Fu Xian (239-294)

大才治世，猶櫛之理髮也。理髮不可無櫛，治世不可無才。

A great talent who organises the world is like a comb that arranges the hair. Hair cannot be arranged without a comb, nor the world organised without talents.

賦曰：

我嘉茲櫛，

惡亂好理，

一髮不順，

實以為恥，

雖日用而匪懈，

不告勞而自已，

苟以理而委任，

期竭力而沒齒。

The rhapsody reads:

This comb I praise:

It loathes disorder and prizes order.

A single hair unsmoothed —

A true disgrace it deems.

Though daily employed, it knows no slack;

It complains not of toil, nor puts itself to rest.

If charged to set the world aright,

It vows to spend its strength till its teeth are buried.[1]

* From Chen Menglei 陳夢雷 (1650-1741) ed., Guji tushu jicheng 古今圖書集成 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1934 [reprint]), “Jingji huibian; Kaogong dian” 經濟彙編•考工典, 218.5a.

[1] The phrase mochi 沒齒 is often a metaphor for death but here also puns on the comb’s teeth going deep into the hair.

A decorated ivory comb for royal use; from the early Qing period (1644-1735)

Image credit: National Palace Museum, Taipei

象牙雕龍紋八寶梳。國立故宮博物院，台北，CC BY 4.0 @ www.npm.gov.tw