Ditai
Mythological Narrative
Ditai has no described form; Guo Pu's note says only 'the name of a divine personage.' He survives in the seventh central sequence as three relics. On Mount Xiuyu, first peak of the Ku range, lie the 'gaming stones of Ditai': five-colored, patterned pebbles shaped like quail eggs. With these stones, the text says, he prayed to the hundred gods, and whoever wears one is proof against gu poison.
Mount Guzhong, 'Drum-and-Bell Mountain,' is 'where Ditai feasted the hundred gods with wine.' And on Mount Gaoqian rises a spring, piercingly cold and clear, called 'the draught of Ditai'; those who drink of it are freed from pain of the heart. Stones, banquet-ground and draught sketch a figure never once shown: a host among the hills around Mount Song who prayed to the gods and poured them wine, of rank enough to seat all hundred of them at his table.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Ditai.
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