Literary sources
Many achievement names, descriptions, and track titles in Chitose borrow from poems and old books. This page gathers the original passages with their sources, a plain-language explanation, and the reason they appear in the app.
Explanations and translations made for this page are our own. Quotations retain the original wording; the Bible passages use the Chinese Union Version and King James Version, and Shakespeare is quoted in English.
This page reveals achievement names and descriptions. If you’d rather keep the surprise, save it for later.
Tang and Song poetry
Spring Rain, Without a Sound
In Chitose: A Parlour achievement. Its name comes from Du Fu; the description, “At leisure, one notices osmanthus falling; in the quiet night, the spring mountain seems empty,” comes from Wang Wei.
Source: Du Fu (Tang), “Spring Night, Joyful Rain” (春夜喜雨); Wang Wei (Tang), “Birdsong Ravine” (鳥鳴澗), one of the five poems on Huangfu Yue’s Yunxi estate.
好雨知時節，當春乃發生。
隨風潛入夜，潤物細無聲。
野徑雲俱黑，江船火獨明。
曉看紅濕處，花重錦官城。
人閒桂花落，夜靜春山空。
月出驚山鳥，時鳴春澗中。
(Many editions write 人閑 rather than 人閒; the two forms are interchangeable here.)
In plain language: The welcome rain knows its season. With spring, it arrives to nourish living things, slipping into the night with the wind and moistening everything without a sound. The paths and clouds are dark; only a river boat’s lamp shines. At dawn, rain-soaked red blossoms weigh down the flowers of Chengdu. In Wang Wei’s poem, stillness makes falling osmanthus noticeable. The rising moon startles mountain birds, which call now and then across the spring ravine.
Context: Du Fu wrote the poem during his years at the thatched cottage west of Chengdu. Rain is a considerate guest: it comes when needed and makes no disturbance. Wang Wei’s scene is quieter still, so quiet that moonrise can disturb the birds.
Why it appears here: The Parlour is a place to sit quietly. Both poems describe a still night: rain without noise, or falling flowers noticed by a mind at ease.
All Night, Listening to the Spring Rain
In Chitose: A Parlour achievement named from Lu You. Its description uses Li Qingzhao’s line about books beside the pillow and a view improved by rain. The related track is “Spring Rain All Night.”
Source: Lu You (Southern Song), “Spring Rain Clearing in Lin’an” (臨安春雨初霽); Li Qingzhao (Song), a lyric to “Tanpo Huanxisha” (攤破浣溪沙).
世味年來薄似紗，誰令騎馬客京華。
小樓一夜聽春雨，深巷明朝賣杏花。
矮紙斜行閒作草，晴窗細乳戲分茶。
素衣莫起風塵歎，猶及清明可到家。
病起蕭蕭兩鬢華，臥看殘月上窗紗。
……
枕上詩書閒處好，門前風景雨來佳。
終日向人多醞藉，木犀花。
(Editions vary in such forms as 醞藉/蘊藉 and 木犀/木樨. The latter both name osmanthus.)
In plain language: Lu You finds worldly life thin and wearisome. He listens to spring rain all night in a small upstairs room; by morning, apricot blossoms are being sold in the deep lanes. He idly writes cursive on a little sheet and plays with tea foam by a bright window, hoping to be home by Qingming. Li Qingzhao, recovering from illness, lies watching the waning moon through the gauze. Books suit a leisurely pillow, and rain improves the view outside; the osmanthus remains quietly graceful.
Context: Lu You wrote in spring 1186, in his early sixties, after being summoned to Lin’an, now Hangzhou. The lyric is weary, yet its rain and flower sellers became especially beloved. “Dividing tea” was a Song tea art that made patterns in the foam. The white robe recalls Lu Ji’s warning that the capital’s dust can stain it. Li Qingzhao’s lyric turns instead to the leisure of convalescence.
Why it appears here: A night of spring rain and books within reach is close to the day the Parlour hopes to offer.
Life’s True Flavor Is Simple Joy
In Chitose: A Parlour achievement. Its name repeats the final line of its description.
Source: Su Shi (Northern Song), a lyric to “Huanxisha” beginning 細雨斜風作曉寒.
細雨斜風作曉寒，淡煙疏柳媚晴灘。入淮清洛漸漫漫。
雪沫乳花浮午盞，蓼茸蒿筍試春盤。人間有味是清歡。
In plain language: Fine rain and slanting wind bring a morning chill; sparse willows and light mist soften the bright riverbank. The clear Luo stream broadens as it enters the Huai. White tea foam floats in the midday cup, and tender spring greens fill a plate. The world’s true flavor is this unadorned pleasure.
Context: The preface dates the outing to the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month of Yuanfeng’s seventh year, when Su Shi visited Nanshan with Liu Qianshu of Sizhou. He had left his years of exile in Huangzhou and was traveling toward Ruzhou. A “spring plate” is seasonal fresh food around the beginning of spring; “simple joy” needs no lavish feast.
Why it appears here: Nothing has to happen in the Parlour. A cup of tea and a view can be enough.
Where the Heart Rests Is Home
In Chitose: A Parlour achievement. The name is from Su Shi; “When the heart rests, the body rests; when the body rests, the room is spacious” is from Shao Yong.
Source: Su Shi (Northern Song), the last two lines of “Ding Feng Bo” beginning 常羨人間琢玉郎; Shao Yong (Northern Song), “Song of Peace of Mind” (心安吟), in the Yichuan Jirang Collection.
試問嶺南應不好，卻道：此心安處是吾鄉。
心安身自安，身安室自寬。
In plain language: “Surely life in Lingnan must have been hard?” She replies: “Where my heart is at peace is my home.” Shao Yong’s lines say that a settled mind brings ease to the body, and an easy body makes even a room feel spacious.
Context: Su Shi’s friend Wang Gong, also called Dingguo, was exiled to Lingnan, and his singing attendant Rounu went with him. After their return north, her answer became Su Shi’s lyric. The preface records it as 此心安處，便是吾鄉. Shao Yong was a Northern Song philosopher.
Why it appears here: The Parlour is a room to return to. Home, in these lines, depends less on a place than on feeling at ease.
Nine Wisps of Smoke Below
In Chitose: An achievement in the “Other” category. Both its name and description come from Li He.
Source: Li He (Tang), “Dreaming of Heaven” (夢天).
老兔寒蟾泣天色，雲樓半開壁斜白。
玉輪軋露濕團光，鸞珮相逢桂香陌。
黃塵清水三山下，更變千年如走馬。
遙望齊州九點煙，一泓海水杯中瀉。
In plain language: The moon’s old hare and cold toad weep beneath the sky; cloud palaces open into slanting white light. Immortals meet on osmanthus-scented paths. Far below, land and sea exchange places, a thousand years passing like galloping horses. China becomes nine wisps of smoke, and the ocean a little water poured from a cup.
Context: The poem dreams of a journey to the moon palace. Its first half depicts the heavenly realm; its second looks down at earth. The three mountains are the legendary Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou. “Qizhou” refers to the central lands, while nine wisps evoke the ancient nine provinces.
Why it appears here: Chitose has lived a very long time. From far enough away, a millennium can pass in a glance.
White Jade Capital of Heaven
In Chitose: The track “White Jade Capital of Heaven.”
Source: Li Bai (Tang), “Recalling Former Travels after the Turmoil, on Receiving Imperial Grace during Exile to Yelang, Presented to Governor Wei Liangzai of Jiangxia” (經亂離後天恩流夜郎憶舊遊書懷贈江夏韋太守良宰).
天上白玉京，十二樓五城。
仙人撫我頂，結髮受長生。
In plain language: Heaven holds a white-jade capital, with twelve towers and five cities. An immortal touches the poet’s head and grants him long life as his hair is bound.
Context: The white-jade capital belongs to Daoist images of the celestial realm. “Twelve towers and five cities” recalls the Han alchemists’ account of the Yellow Emperor building them to await immortals, recorded in the “Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices” of the Records of the Grand Historian. Li Bai looks back on his youthful pursuit of immortality after a pardon.
Why it appears here: The music imagines a city above the clouds, its towers opening toward the horizon. Its name takes the opening words of these lines.
Cat at Play
In Chitose: The track “Cat at Play.”
Source: The wording 貍奴 is an affectionate old name for a cat. One example is the first of Lu You’s two poems “A Storm on the Fourth Day of the Eleventh Month” (十一月四日風雨大作二首).
風卷江湖雨暗村，四山聲作海濤翻。
溪柴火軟蠻氈暖，我與貍奴不出門。
In plain language: Wind and rain darken the village; the surrounding mountains roar like breaking seas. Inside, the fire burns gently and the blanket is warm. The poet and his cat are going nowhere.
Context: Lu You wrote a number of cat poems. In this one, he and the cat stay indoors while the storm goes on outside.
Why it appears here: The title borrows the old word for a cat; Lu You supplies one example of its use, not a direct source for the whole title. The music follows a cat’s free, stop-and-start play.
Early Chinese classics
A Journey of a Thousand Miles
In Chitose: A focus achievement.
Source: Laozi, chapter 64.
合抱之木，生於毫末；九層之臺，起於累土；千里之行，始於足下。
In plain language: A tree too wide to embrace starts as a tiny shoot; a nine-story terrace starts as heaps of earth; a journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.
Context: The chapter speaks of things beginning small, and of acting while they are still manageable. Its final line became a familiar encouragement to begin.
Why it appears here: Concentrating on a task also begins with sitting down for the first minute.
Every Five Hundred Years, a King Arises
In Chitose: A to-do achievement.
Source: Mencius, “Gongsun Chou, Part II” (公孫丑下).
五百年必有王者興，其間必有名世者。
In plain language: Every five hundred years, a sage king is bound to arise; between those times, figures of great distinction will appear.
Context: Leaving Qi, Mencius is asked why he seems unhappy. More than seven hundred years have passed since Zhou: surely a king’s time is due. If Heaven wished to bring peace, who else in the present world could take the task? His answer ends in the confident question, “Why should I be unhappy?”
Why it appears here: The achievement turns the line into a joke: after clearing five hundred to-dos, perhaps you are a ruler of to-do lists.
All the Sounds of Heaven and Earth
In Chitose: A to-do achievement and a track title.
Source: Zhuangzi, “Discussion on Making All Things Equal” (齊物論); the last two lines of Chang Jian’s “Inscribed at the Meditation Court behind Poshan Temple” (題破山寺後禪院).
女聞人籟而未聞地籟，女聞地籟而未聞天籟夫！
萬籟此都寂，但餘鐘磬音。
In plain language: You have heard human piping, but not the piping of the earth; you have heard the earth, but not that of Heaven. In Chang Jian’s lines, all sounds grow still, leaving only bells and chimes.
Context: In Zhuangzi, “piping” is the sound of wind passing through openings. Ziyou describes the earth’s hollows and human bamboo pipes, then asks Nanguo Ziqi about Heaven. Each thing sounds in its own way: who, then, makes it so? “All sounds” later became a familiar poetic phrase. The track title combines these words; it is not a verbatim quotation.
Why it appears here: As tasks are set down, the noise recedes and sounds that were already there become audible.
Qingqiu
In Chitose: The track “Qingqiu.”
Source: The Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海經): the “Classic of the Southern Mountains” and the “Classic of Regions beyond the Seas: East.”
〈南山經〉：青丘之山……有獸焉，其狀如狐而九尾。
〈海外東經〉：青丘國在其北……其狐四足九尾。
In plain language: On Qingqiu Mountain is a creature shaped like a fox with nine tails. In the eastern overseas realm of Qingqiu, the foxes have four feet and nine tails.
Context: Qingqiu is a mythic eastern land associated with the nine-tailed fox. Ancient accounts are not uniform: its beast eats people in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, while the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue and Han omen texts treat a white nine-tailed fox as auspicious. The former links the omen with Yu’s marriage to the woman of Tushan. Later fiction often casts the fox as a supernatural demon.
Why it appears here: For a fox such as Chitose, Qingqiu suggests an old homeland: vast, ancient, and alive with spirit.
Five Tones
In Chitose: The track “Five Tones.”
Source: The five traditional tones are gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu (宮、商、角、徵、羽). Mencius, “Li Lou, Part I” (離婁上), mentions tuning them with pitch pipes.
不以六律，不能正五音。
In plain language: Without the six pitch standards, the five tones cannot be set correctly.
Context: In classical poetry, 五律 usually abbreviates five-character regulated verse. The track refers instead to five tones whose small melodies appear separately and gradually come together.
Why it appears here: The name refers to the five-tone scale, rather than quoting the name of a poem.
Histories, miscellanies, and fiction
A Pearl Left in the Sea
In Chitose: A writing achievement.
Source: New Book of Tang (新唐書), “Biography of Di Renjie.”
仲尼稱觀過知仁，君可謂滄海遺珠矣。
In plain language: Confucius said that a person’s faults reveal their character. You, the speaker says, may be called a pearl left unnoticed in the sea.
Context: As a young man, Di Renjie was falsely accused. His examiner Yan Liben recognized his ability, apologized, and spoke these words. The phrase became an idiom for overlooked talent. Its opening alludes to the Analects, “Li Ren.”
Celestial Fox
In Chitose: The theme “Chitose” and Chitose’s name.
Source: Xuanzhong Ji (玄中記), attributed to Guo Pu of the Jin. The original book is lost; this passage survives through quotations in later works.
狐五十歲，能變化為婦人；百歲為美女……千歲即與天通，為天狐。
In plain language: At fifty, a fox can transform into a woman; at a hundred, into a beauty. After a thousand years, it communicates with Heaven and becomes a celestial fox.
Context: In old belief, animals could acquire supernatural powers with age, and foxes were a familiar example. In this passage, a fox’s transformations grow with the years until it reaches Heaven.
Why it appears here: The characters of Chitose’s name, 千歲, are the same “thousand years” in this passage.
Eighty-One Trials
In Chitose: A to-do achievement.
Source: Journey to the West (西遊記), traditionally attributed to Wu Cheng’en (Ming), chapter 99’s heading.
九九數完魔滅盡，三三行滿道歸根。
In plain language: The count of nine times nine trials is fulfilled and the demons are vanquished; the completed practice returns the Way to its root.
Context: Near the end of the pilgrimage, the bodhisattva counts the disasters endured by the monk and his companions. One is missing, so another is arranged to complete eighty-one. The quoted couplet is the heading of chapter 99.
Why it appears here: Finishing eighty-one to-dos is treated as passing eighty-one trials.
World literature and mythology
In the Beginning Was the Word
In Chitose: A writing achievement.
Source: The New Testament, John 1
; the Chinese Union Version and the King James Version (1611).太初有道，道與神同在，道就是神。(Chinese Union Version)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.(King James Version, 1611)
Context: The Greek word Logos can mean word, speech, or reason. The Chinese 道 and English “the Word” translate the same Greek term.
Why it appears here: For a writer, everything starts with the first word.
Your Thousand and One Nights
In Chitose: A writing achievement.
Source: The Arabic story collection One Thousand and One Nights.
Context: A king marries a new bride each day and has her killed the next. Scheherazade marries him and tells a story every night, stopping at dawn at the most compelling point. Wanting the ending, he lets her live another day. After a thousand and one nights, he abandons his murderous intention.
Why it appears here: Someone who writes a little each day has a thousand and one nights of their own.
The Twelve Labors of Heracles
In Chitose: A to-do achievement.
Source: Greek mythology.
Context: Driven mad by Hera, Heracles kills his wife and children. On regaining his senses, he undertakes twelve difficult labors for King Eurystheus as atonement, from killing the invulnerable lion to cleaning enormous cattle stables in a single day.
Why it appears here: A mythic hero completed twelve tasks; your to-do list has caught up with him.
To Be or Not to Be
In Chitose: An achievement in the Chitose minigame.
Source: Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 1.
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
Context: The soliloquy weighs living against not living, and bearing fortune’s blows against resisting them. Its opening became one of English literature’s best-known lines. The Chinese title uses the familiar rendering 生存還是毀滅.
Why it appears here: The minigame has a survival mode. Here the line becomes a joke: for you, this is no longer the question.
Around the World in Eighty Days
In Chitose: An ambient-and-music achievement.
Source: Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days (Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours), serialized in 1872 and published as a book in 1873.
Context: The English gentleman Phileas Fogg wagers that he can circle the earth in eighty days. With his servant, he travels by train, ship, and even elephant, returning to London at the last possible moment.
Why it appears here: Collecting sights and sounds from different places can feel like a journey around the world.
Words in track titles
Small Contentment
In Chitose: The track “Small Contentment.”
Source: Xiaoman, one of the twenty-four solar terms; the Collection of Explanations of the Seventy-two Pentads (月令七十二候集解).
Context: Xiaoman falls in late May, early in summer. The text explains that things have become a little full: grain is filling out but has not yet ripened. The music takes this in-between fullness as an image of contentment without insisting on completeness.
About translations and sources
- This page quotes historical texts. Explanations and translations made for the page are our own; we have not copied modern published translations.
- Wording can differ between editions; the quotations follow commonly circulated forms.