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In this paper, cuckoo lore in Chinese sources is explored through two predominant symbolic roles assigned to the cuckoo-the cuckoo as harbinger of spring and as "brood parasite." Sino-cuckoo myth and lore is both similar and dissimilar to that encountered in other cultures. Among the similarities, we find the cuckoo in its universal role of spring herald. The incongruities, as in interpretations of the bird's brood-parasitic behavior, are also striking. An investigation into assimilation and interpretation of cuckoo lore in Chinese sources provides us with an exemplary study of ideological codification. This codification of the cuckoo evolves from philological debate over the nomenclature of shijiu, bugu, dujuan, and daisheng, classifications that have been explicated and debated in confusing detail.
THE COMMON CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus) has long intrigued poets and philosophers as a study in contradictions. ' Myth and biological reality merge and diverge, forging cuckoo lore that is intriguing, mystifying, and powerful. The cuckoo is the harbinger of spring, its call beckoning the start of the ploughing season, its arrival heralding summer rains. Yet, conversely, in the Old Testament the "cuckow" is unclean, held in "abomination among fowls," alongside vultures and ravens.2 Topsell (ca. 17th c.) claimed that the "cuckoe" signified "a Coward and fearefull man." In French vernacular it signals deceit; the British say "faithless(ness)." Yet the cuckoo also projected phallic prowess, for an amorous Zeus ravished Hera by assuming the shape of the cuckoo. Along these lines, it is a Danish symbol for fertility and longevity.3
Chinese tradition encompasses many of the properties associated with such cuckoo lore. The cuckoo emerged as a natural symbol through hybrids of literary conceit and interpretation of biological truth. In this paper, discussion of cuckoo lore in Chinese sources will focus on two universal hybrids of conceit and fact, the cuckoo as harbinger of spring-in this, resembling the lore of other cultures-and as "brood parasite," the latter term referring to the behavior of relegating incubation and rearing of offspring to other "foster-parent" birds. Interpretations of such behavior, by contrast, set Chinese cuckoo lore apart, and often reveal ideological biasses. In traditional Chinese sources the main characteristics of the cuckoo evolve from philological debate over nomenclature, in which textual, and not ornithological, classifications...
