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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Some Chinese Ghosts
+
+Author: Lafcadio Hearn
+
+Release Date: July 11, 2005 [EBook #16261]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CHINESE GHOSTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bethanne M. Simms, Louise Pryor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The letter o with a caron
+is indicated as [)o] in this text version.]
+
+
+
+
+SOME CHINESE GHOSTS
+
+
+BY LAFCADIO HEARN
+
+
+
+
+_Copyright_, 1887, by ROBERTS BROTHERS
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_To my friend_  HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL
+
+_THE MUSICIAN_
+
+WHO, SPEAKING THE SPEECH OF MELODY UNTO THE
+CHILDREN OF TIEN-HIA,--
+UNTO THE WANDERING TSING-JIN, WHOSE SKINS
+HAVE THE COLOR OF GOLD,--
+MOVED THEM TO MAKE STRANGE SOUNDS UPON THE
+SERPENT-BELLIED SAN-HIEN;
+PERSUADED THEM TO PLAY FOR ME UPON THE
+SHRIEKING YA-HIEN;
+PREVAILED ON THEM TO SING ME A SONG OF THEIR
+NATIVE LAND,--
+THE SONG OF MOHLÍ-HWA,
+THE SONG OF THE JASMINE-FLOWER
+
+[Illustration: Line drawing of a man's head]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+_PREFACE_
+
+
+I think that my best apology for the insignificant size of this volume
+is the very character of the material composing it. In preparing the
+legends I sought especially for _weird beauty_; and I could not forget
+this striking observation in Sir Walter Scott's "Essay on Imitations of
+the Ancient Ballad": "The supernatural, though appealing to certain
+powerful emotions very widely and deeply sown amongst the human race,
+is, nevertheless, a _spring which is peculiarly apt to lose its
+elasticity by being too much pressed upon_."
+
+Those desirous to familiarize themselves with Chinese literature as a
+whole have had the way made smooth for them by the labors of linguists
+like Julien, Pavie, Rémusat, De Rosny, Schlegel, Legge,
+Hervey-Saint-Denys, Williams, Biot, Giles, Wylie, Beal, and many other
+Sinologists. To such great explorers, indeed, the realm of Cathayan
+story belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the humbler
+traveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast and
+mysterious pleasure-grounds of Chinese fancy may surely be permitted to
+cull a few of the marvellous flowers there growing,--a self-luminous
+_hwa-wang_, a black lily, a phosphoric rose or two,--as souvenirs of his
+curious voyage.
+
+L.H.
+
+NEW ORLEANS, March 15, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+_CONTENTS_
+
+
+THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL
+
+THE STORY OF MING-Y
+
+THE LEGEND OF TCHI-NIU
+
+THE RETURN OF YEN-TCHIN-KING
+
+THE TRADITION OF THE TEA-PLANT
+
+THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES
+
+GLOSSARY
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Decorative motif]
+
+[Illustration: Line drawing of a head]
+
+
+
+
+The Soul of the Great Bell
+
+
+     _She hath spoken, and her words still resound in his ears._
+
+     HAO-KHIEOU-TCHOUAN: c. ix.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL
+
+
+The water-clock marks the hour in the _Ta-chung sz'_,--in the Tower of
+the Great Bell: now the mallet is lifted to smite the lips of the
+metal monster,--the vast lips inscribed with Buddhist texts from the
+sacred _Fa-hwa-King_, from the chapters of the holy _Ling-yen-King_!
+Hear the great bell responding!--how mighty her voice, though
+tongueless!--_KO-NGAI!_ All the little dragons on the high-tilted
+eaves of the green roofs shiver to the tips of their gilded tails
+under that deep wave of sound; all the porcelain gargoyles tremble on
+their carven perches; all the hundred little bells of the pagodas
+quiver with desire to speak. _KO-NGAI!_--all the green-and-gold tiles
+of the temple are vibrating; the wooden goldfish above them are
+writhing against the sky; the uplifted finger of Fo shakes high over
+the heads of the worshippers through the blue fog of incense!
+_KO-NGAI!_--What a thunder tone was that! All the lacquered goblins on
+the palace cornices wriggle their fire-colored tongues! And after each
+huge shock, how wondrous the multiple echo and the great golden moan
+and, at last, the sudden sibilant sobbing in the ears when the immense
+tone faints away in broken whispers of silver,--as though a woman
+should whisper, "_Hiai!_" Even so the great bell hath sounded every
+day for well-nigh five hundred years,--_Ko-Ngai_: first with
+stupendous clang, then with immeasurable moan of gold, then with
+silver murmuring of "_Hiai!_" And there is not a child in all the
+many-colored ways of the old Chinese city who does not know the story
+of the great bell,--who cannot tell you why the great bell says
+_Ko-Ngai_ and _Hiai_!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, this is the story of the great bell in the Ta-chung sz', as the
+same is related in the _Pe-Hiao-Tou-Choue_, written by the learned
+Yu-Pao-Tchen, of the City of Kwang-tchau-fu.
+
+Nearly five hundred years ago the Celestially August, the Son of Heaven,
+Yong-Lo, of the "Illustrious," or Ming, dynasty, commanded the worthy
+official Kouan-Yu that he should have a bell made of such size that the
+sound thereof might be heard for one hundred _li_. And he further
+ordained that the voice of the bell should be strengthened with brass,
+and deepened with gold, and sweetened with silver; and that the face and
+the great lips of it should be graven with blessed sayings from the
+sacred books, and that it should be suspended in the centre of the
+imperial capital, to sound through all the many-colored ways of the City
+of Pe-king.
+
+Therefore the worthy mandarin Kouan-Yu assembled the master-moulders and
+the renowned bellsmiths of the empire, and all men of great repute and
+cunning in foundry work; and they measured the materials for the alloy,
+and treated them skilfully, and prepared the moulds, the fires, the
+instruments, and the monstrous melting-pot for fusing the metal. And
+they labored exceedingly, like giants,--neglecting only rest and sleep
+and the comforts of life; toiling both night and day in obedience to
+Kouan-Yu, and striving in all things to do the behest of the Son of
+Heaven.
+
+But when the metal had been cast, and the earthen mould separated from
+the glowing casting, it was discovered that, despite their great labor
+and ceaseless care, the result was void of worth; for the metals had
+rebelled one against the other,--the gold had scorned alliance with the
+brass, the silver would not mingle with the molten iron. Therefore the
+moulds had to be once more prepared, and the fires rekindled, and the
+metal remelted, and all the work tediously and toilsomely repeated. The
+Son of Heaven heard, and was angry, but spake nothing.
+
+A second time the bell was cast, and the result was even worse. Still
+the metals obstinately refused to blend one with the other; and there
+was no uniformity in the bell, and the sides of it were cracked and
+fissured, and the lips of it were slagged and split asunder; so that all
+the labor had to be repeated even a third time, to the great dismay of
+Kouan-Yu. And when the Son of Heaven heard these things, he was angrier
+than before; and sent his messenger to Kouan-Yu with a letter, written
+upon lemon-colored silk, and sealed with the seal of the Dragon,
+containing these words:--
+
+"_From the Mighty Yong-Lo, the Sublime Tait-Sung, the Celestial and
+August,--whose reign is called 'Ming,'--to Kouan-Yu the Fuh-yin: Twice
+thou hast betrayed the trust we have deigned graciously to place in
+thee; if thou fail a third time in fulfilling our command, thy head
+shall be severed from thy neck. Tremble, and obey!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, Kouan-Yu had a daughter of dazzling loveliness, whose
+name--Ko-Ngai--was ever in the mouths of poets, and whose heart was even
+more beautiful than her face. Ko-Ngai loved her father with such love
+that she had refused a hundred worthy suitors rather than make his home
+desolate by her absence; and when she had seen the awful yellow missive,
+sealed with the Dragon-Seal, she fainted away with fear for her father's
+sake. And when her senses and her strength returned to her, she could
+not rest or sleep for thinking of her parent's danger, until she had
+secretly sold some of her jewels, and with the money so obtained had
+hastened to an astrologer, and paid him a great price to advise her by
+what means her father might be saved from the peril impending over him.
+So the astrologer made observations of the heavens, and marked the
+aspect of the Silver Stream (which we call the Milky Way), and examined
+the signs of the Zodiac,--the _Hwang-tao_, or Yellow Road,--and
+consulted the table of the Five _Hin_, or Principles of the Universe,
+and the mystical books of the alchemists. And after a long silence, he
+made answer to her, saying: "Gold and brass will never meet in wedlock,
+silver and iron never will embrace, until the flesh of a maiden be
+melted in the crucible; until the blood of a virgin be mixed with the
+metals in their fusion." So Ko-Ngai returned home sorrowful at heart;
+but she kept secret all that she had heard, and told no one what she had
+done.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At last came the awful day when the third and last effort to cast the
+great bell was to be made; and Ko-Ngai, together with her waiting-woman,
+accompanied her father to the foundry, and they took their places upon a
+platform overlooking the toiling of the moulders and the lava of
+liquefied metal. All the workmen wrought their tasks in silence; there
+was no sound heard but the muttering of the fires. And the muttering
+deepened into a roar like the roar of typhoons approaching, and the
+blood-red lake of metal slowly brightened like the vermilion of a
+sunrise, and the vermilion was transmuted into a radiant glow of gold,
+and the gold whitened blindingly, like the silver face of a full moon.
+Then the workers ceased to feed the raving flame, and all fixed their
+eyes upon the eyes of Kouan-Yu; and Kouan-Yu prepared to give the signal
+to cast.
+
+But ere ever he lifted his finger, a cry caused him to turn his head;
+and all heard the voice of Ko-Ngai sounding sharply sweet as a bird's
+song above the great thunder of the fires,--"_For thy sake, O my
+Father!_" And even as she cried, she leaped into the white flood of
+metal; and the lava of the furnace roared to receive her, and spattered
+monstrous flakes of flame to the roof, and burst over the verge of the
+earthen crater, and cast up a whirling fountain of many-colored fires,
+and subsided quakingly, with lightnings and with thunders and with
+mutterings.
+
+Then the father of Ko-Ngai, wild with his grief, would have leaped in
+after her, but that strong men held him back and kept firm grasp upon
+him until he had fainted away and they could bear him like one dead to
+his home. And the serving-woman of Ko-Ngai, dizzy and speechless for
+pain, stood before the furnace, still holding in her hands a shoe, a
+tiny, dainty shoe, with embroidery of pearls and flowers,--the shoe of
+her beautiful mistress that was. For she had sought to grasp Ko-Ngai by
+the foot as she leaped, but had only been able to clutch the shoe, and
+the pretty shoe came off in her hand; and she continued to stare at it
+like one gone mad.
+
+
+But in spite of all these things, the command of the Celestial and
+August had to be obeyed, and the work of the moulders to be finished,
+hopeless as the result might be. Yet the glow of the metal seemed purer
+and whiter than before; and there was no sign of the beautiful body that
+had been entombed therein. So the ponderous casting was made; and lo!
+when the metal had become cool, it was found that the bell was beautiful
+to look upon, and perfect in form, and wonderful in color above all
+other bells. Nor was there any trace found of the body of Ko-Ngai; for
+it had been totally absorbed by the precious alloy, and blended with the
+well-blended brass and gold, with the intermingling of the silver and
+the iron. And when they sounded the bell, its tones were found to be
+deeper and mellower and mightier than the tones of any other
+bell,--reaching even beyond the distance of one hundred _li_, like a
+pealing of summer thunder; and yet also like some vast voice uttering a
+name, a woman's name,--the name of Ko-Ngai!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And still, between each mighty stroke there is a long low moaning heard;
+and ever the moaning ends with a sound of sobbing and of complaining, as
+though a weeping woman should murmur, "_Hiai!_" And still, when the
+people hear that great golden moan they keep silence; but when the
+sharp, sweet shuddering comes in the air, and the sobbing of "_Hiai!_"
+then, indeed, all the Chinese mothers in all the many-colored ways of
+Pe-king whisper to their little ones: "_Listen! that is Ko-Ngai crying
+for her shoe! That is Ko-Ngai calling for her shoe!_"
+
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+The Story of Ming-Y
+
+
+     THE ANCIENT WORDS OF KOUEI--MASTER OF MUSICIANS IN THE COURTS
+     OF THE EMPEROR YAO:--
+
+    _When ye make to resound the stone melodious, the Ming-Khieou,--
+    When ye touch the lyre that is called Kin, or the guitar that is
+        called Ssé,--
+    Accompanying their sound with song,--
+    Then do the grandfather and the father return;
+    Then do the ghosts of the ancestors come to hear._
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF MING-Y
+
+     _Sang the Poet Tching-Kou: "Surely the Peach-Flowers blossom over
+     the tomb of Sië-Thao."_
+
+
+Do you ask me who she was,--the beautiful Sië-Thao? For a thousand years
+and more the trees have been whispering above her bed of stone. And the
+syllables of her name come to the listener with the lisping of the
+leaves; with the quivering of many-fingered boughs; with the fluttering
+of lights and shadows; with the breath, sweet as a woman's presence, of
+numberless savage flowers,--_Sië-Thao_. But, saving the whispering of
+her name, what the trees say cannot be understood; and they alone
+remember the years of Sië-Thao. Something about her you might,
+nevertheless, learn from any of those _Kiang-kou-jin_,--those famous
+Chinese story-tellers, who nightly narrate to listening crowds, in
+consideration of a few _tsien_, the legends of the past. Something
+concerning her you may also find in the book entitled "Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan,"
+which signifies in our tongue: "The Marvellous Happenings of Ancient and
+of Recent Times." And perhaps of all things therein written, the most
+marvellous is this memory of Sië-Thao:--
+
+Five hundred years ago, in the reign of the Emperor Houng-Wou, whose
+dynasty was _Ming_, there lived in the City of Genii, the city of
+Kwang-tchau-fu, a man celebrated for his learning and for his piety,
+named Tien-Pelou. This Tien-Pelou had one son, a beautiful boy, who for
+scholarship and for bodily grace and for polite accomplishments had no
+superior among the youths of his age. And his name was Ming-Y.
+
+Now when the lad was in his eighteenth summer, it came to pass that
+Pelou, his father, was appointed Inspector of Public Instruction at the
+city of Tching-tou; and Ming-Y accompanied his parents thither. Near the
+city of Tching-tou lived a rich man of rank, a high commissioner of the
+government, whose name was Tchang, and who wanted to find a worthy
+teacher for his children. On hearing of the arrival of the new Inspector
+of Public Instruction, the noble Tchang visited him to obtain advice in
+this matter; and happening to meet and converse with Pelou's
+accomplished son, immediately engaged Ming-Y as a private tutor for his
+family.
+
+Now as the house of this Lord Tchang was situated several miles from
+town, it was deemed best that Ming-Y should abide in the house of his
+employer. Accordingly the youth made ready all things necessary for his
+new sojourn; and his parents, bidding him farewell, counselled him
+wisely, and cited to him the words of Lao-tseu and of the ancient sages:
+
+"_By a beautiful face the world is filled with love; but Heaven may
+never be deceived thereby. Shouldst thou behold a woman coming from the
+East, look thou to the West; shouldst thou perceive a maiden approaching
+from the West, turn thine eyes to the East._"
+
+If Ming-Y did not heed this counsel in after days, it was only because
+of his youth and the thoughtlessness of a naturally joyous heart.
+
+And he departed to abide in the house of Lord Tchang, while the autumn
+passed, and the winter also.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the time of the second moon of spring was drawing near, and that
+happy day which the Chinese call _Hoa-tchao_, or, "The Birthday of a
+Hundred Flowers," a longing came upon Ming-Y to see his parents; and he
+opened his heart to the good Tchang, who not only gave him the
+permission he desired, but also pressed into his hand a silver gift of
+two ounces, thinking that the lad might wish to bring some little
+memento to his father and mother. For it is the Chinese custom, on the
+feast of Hoa-tchao, to make presents to friends and relations.
+
+That day all the air was drowsy with blossom perfume, and vibrant with
+the droning of bees. It seemed to Ming-Y that the path he followed had
+not been trodden by any other for many long years; the grass was tall
+upon it; vast trees on either side interlocked their mighty and
+moss-grown arms above him, beshadowing the way; but the leafy
+obscurities quivered with bird-song, and the deep vistas of the wood
+were glorified by vapors of gold, and odorous with flower-breathings as
+a temple with incense. The dreamy joy of the day entered into the heart
+of Ming-Y; and he sat him down among the young blossoms, under the
+branches swaying against the violet sky, to drink in the perfume and the
+light, and to enjoy the great sweet silence. Even while thus reposing, a
+sound caused him to turn his eyes toward a shady place where wild
+peach-trees were in bloom; and he beheld a young woman, beautiful as the
+pinkening blossoms themselves, trying to hide among them. Though he
+looked for a moment only, Ming-Y could not avoid discerning the
+loveliness of her face, the golden purity of her complexion, and the
+brightness of her long eyes, that sparkled under a pair of brows as
+daintily curved as the wings of the silkworm butterfly outspread. Ming-Y
+at once turned his gaze away, and, rising quickly, proceeded on his
+journey. But so much embarrassed did he feel at the idea of those
+charming eyes peeping at him through the leaves, that he suffered the
+money he had been carrying in his sleeve to fall, without being aware of
+it. A few moments later he heard the patter of light feet running behind
+him, and a woman's voice calling him by name. Turning his face in great
+surprise, he saw a comely servant-maid, who said to him, "Sir, my
+mistress bade me pick up and return you this silver which you dropped
+upon the road." Ming-Y thanked the girl gracefully, and requested her to
+convey his compliments to her mistress. Then he proceeded on his way
+through the perfumed silence, athwart the shadows that dreamed along the
+forgotten path, dreaming himself also, and feeling his heart beating
+with strange quickness at the thought of the beautiful being that he had
+seen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was just such another day when Ming-Y, returning by the same path,
+paused once more at the spot where the gracious figure had momentarily
+appeared before him. But this time he was surprised to perceive, through
+a long vista of immense trees, a dwelling that had previously escaped
+his notice,--a country residence, not large, yet elegant to an unusual
+degree. The bright blue tiles of its curved and serrated double roof,
+rising above the foliage, seemed to blend their color with the luminous
+azure of the day; the green-and-gold designs of its carven porticos were
+exquisite artistic mockeries of leaves and flowers bathed in sunshine.
+And at the summit of terrace-steps before it, guarded by great
+porcelain tortoises, Ming-Y saw standing the mistress of the
+mansion,--the idol of his passionate fancy,--accompanied by the same
+waiting-maid who had borne to her his message of gratitude. While Ming-Y
+looked, he perceived that their eyes were upon him; they smiled and
+conversed together as if speaking about him; and, shy though he was, the
+youth found courage to salute the fair one from a distance. To his
+astonishment, the young servant beckoned him to approach; and opening a
+rustic gate half veiled by trailing plants bearing crimson flowers,
+Ming-Y advanced along the verdant alley leading to the terrace, with
+mingled feelings of surprise and timid joy. As he drew near, the
+beautiful lady withdrew from sight; but the maid waited at the broad
+steps to receive him, and said as he ascended:
+
+"Sir, my mistress understands you wish to thank her for the trifling
+service she recently bade me do you, and requests that you will enter
+the house, as she knows you already by repute, and desires to have the
+pleasure of bidding you good-day."
+
+Ming-Y entered bashfully, his feet making no sound upon a matting
+elastically soft as forest moss, and found himself in a
+reception-chamber vast, cool, and fragrant with scent of blossoms freshly
+gathered. A delicious quiet pervaded the mansion; shadows of flying
+birds passed over the bands of light that fell through the half-blinds
+of bamboo; great butterflies, with pinions of fiery color, found their
+way in, to hover a moment about the painted vases, and pass out again
+into the mysterious woods. And noiselessly as they, the young mistress
+of the mansion entered by another door, and kindly greeted the boy, who
+lifted his hands to his breast and bowed low in salutation. She was
+taller than he had deemed her, and supplely-slender as a beauteous lily;
+her black hair was interwoven with the creamy blossoms of the
+_chu-sha-kih_; her robes of pale silk took shifting tints when she
+moved, as vapors change hue with the changing of the light.
+
+"If I be not mistaken," she said, when both had seated themselves after
+having exchanged the customary formalities of politeness, "my honored
+visitor is none other than Tien-chou, surnamed Ming-Y, educator of the
+children of my respected relative, the High Commissioner Tchang. As the
+family of Lord Tchang is my family also, I cannot but consider the
+teacher of his children as one of my own kin."
+
+"Lady," replied Ming-Y, not a little astonished, "may I dare to inquire
+the name of your honored family, and to ask the relation which you hold
+to my noble patron?"
+
+"The name of my poor family," responded the comely lady, "is _Ping_,--an
+ancient family of the city of Tching-tou. I am the daughter of a certain
+Sië of Moun-hao; Sië is my name, likewise; and I was married to a young
+man of the Ping family, whose name was Khang. By this marriage I became
+related to your excellent patron; but my husband died soon after our
+wedding, and I have chosen this solitary place to reside in during the
+period of my widowhood."
+
+There was a drowsy music in her voice, as of the melody of brooks, the
+murmurings of spring; and such a strange grace in the manner of her
+speech as Ming-Y had never heard before. Yet, on learning that she was a
+widow, the youth would not have presumed to remain long in her presence
+without a formal invitation; and after having sipped the cup of rich tea
+presented to him, he arose to depart. Sië would not suffer him to go so
+quickly.
+
+"Nay, friend," she said; "stay yet a little while in my house, I pray
+you; for, should your honored patron ever learn that you had been here,
+and that I had not treated you as a respected guest, and regaled you
+even as I would him, I know that he would be greatly angered. Remain at
+least to supper."
+
+So Ming-Y remained, rejoicing secretly in his heart, for Sië seemed to
+him the fairest and sweetest being he had ever known, and he felt that
+he loved her even more than his father and his mother. And while they
+talked the long shadows of the evening slowly blended into one violet
+darkness; the great citron-light of the sunset faded out; and those
+starry beings that are called the Three Councillors, who preside over
+life and death and the destinies of men, opened their cold bright eyes
+in the northern sky. Within the mansion of Sië the painted lanterns were
+lighted; the table was laid for the evening repast; and Ming-Y took his
+place at it, feeling little inclination to eat, and thinking only of the
+charming face before him. Observing that he scarcely tasted the dainties
+laid upon his plate, Sië pressed her young guest to partake of wine;
+and they drank several cups together. It was a purple wine, so cool that
+the cup into which it was poured became covered with vapory dew; yet it
+seemed to warm the veins with strange fire. To Ming-Y, as he drank, all
+things became more luminous as by enchantment; the walls of the chamber
+appeared to recede, and the roof to heighten; the lamps glowed like
+stars in their chains, and the voice of Sië floated to the boy's ears
+like some far melody heard through the spaces of a drowsy night. His
+heart swelled; his tongue loosened; and words flitted from his lips that
+he had fancied he could never dare to utter. Yet Sië sought not to
+restrain him; her lips gave no smile; but her long bright eyes seemed to
+laugh with pleasure at his words of praise, and to return his gaze of
+passionate admiration with affectionate interest.
+
+"I have heard," she said, "of your rare talent, and of your many elegant
+accomplishments. I know how to sing a little, although I cannot claim to
+possess any musical learning; and now that I have the honor of finding
+myself in the society of a musical professor, I will venture to lay
+modesty aside, and beg you to sing a few songs with me. I should deem it
+no small gratification if you would condescend to examine my musical
+compositions."
+
+"The honor and the gratification, dear lady," replied Ming-Y, "will be
+mine; and I feel helpless to express the gratitude which the offer of so
+rare a favor deserves."
+
+The serving-maid, obedient to the summons of a little silver gong,
+brought in the music and retired. Ming-Y took the manuscripts, and
+began to examine them with eager delight. The paper upon which they were
+written had a pale yellow tint, and was light as a fabric of gossamer;
+but the characters were antiquely beautiful, as though they had been
+traced by the brush of Heï-song Ché-Tchoo himself,--that divine Genius
+of Ink, who is no bigger than a fly; and the signatures attached to the
+compositions were the signatures of Youen-tchin, Kao-pien, and
+Thou-mou,--mighty poets and musicians of the dynasty of Thang! Ming-Y
+could not repress a scream of delight at the sight of treasures so
+inestimable and so unique; scarcely could he summon resolution enough to
+permit them to leave his hands even for a moment. "O Lady!" he cried,
+"these are veritably priceless things, surpassing in worth the
+treasures of all kings. This indeed is the handwriting of those great
+masters who sang five hundred years before our birth. How marvellously
+it has been preserved! Is not this the wondrous ink of which it was
+written: _Po-nien-jou-chi, i-tien-jou-ki,_--'After centuries I remain
+firm as stone, and the letters that I make like lacquer'? And how divine
+the charm of this composition!--the song of Kao-pien, prince of poets,
+and Governor of Sze-tchouen five hundred years ago!"
+
+"Kao-pien! darling Kao-pien!" murmured Sië, with a singular light in her
+eyes. "Kao-pien is also my favorite. Dear Ming-Y, let us chant his
+verses together, to the melody of old,--the music of those grand years
+when men were nobler and wiser than to-day."
+
+And their voices rose through the perfumed night like the voices of the
+wonder-birds,--of the Fung-hoang,--blending together in liquid
+sweetness. Yet a moment, and Ming-Y, overcome by the witchery of his
+companion's voice, could only listen in speechless ecstasy, while the
+lights of the chamber swam dim before his sight, and tears of pleasure
+trickled down his cheeks.
+
+So the ninth hour passed; and they continued to converse, and to drink
+the cool purple wine, and to sing the songs of the years of Thang, until
+far into the night. More than once Ming-Y thought of departing; but each
+time Sië would begin, in that silver-sweet voice of hers, so wondrous a
+story of the great poets of the past, and of the women whom they loved,
+that he became as one entranced; or she would sing for him a song so
+strange that all his senses seemed to die except that of hearing. And at
+last, as she paused to pledge him in a cup of wine, Ming-Y could not
+restrain himself from putting his arm about her round neck and drawing
+her dainty head closer to him, and kissing the lips that were so much
+ruddier and sweeter than the wine. Then their lips separated no
+more;--the night grew old, and they knew it not.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The birds awakened, the flowers opened their eyes to the rising sun,
+and Ming-Y found himself at last compelled to bid his lovely enchantress
+farewell. Sië, accompanying him to the terrace, kissed him fondly and
+said, "Dear boy, come hither as often as you are able,--as often as your
+heart whispers you to come. I know that you are not of those without
+faith and truth, who betray secrets; yet, being so young, you might also
+be sometimes thoughtless; and I pray you never to forget that only the
+stars have been the witnesses of our love. Speak of it to no living
+person, dearest; and take with you this little souvenir of our happy
+night."
+
+And she presented him with an exquisite and curious little thing,--a
+paper-weight in likeness of a couchant lion, wrought from a jade-stone
+yellow as that created by a rainbow in honor of Kong-fu-tze. Tenderly
+the boy kissed the gift and the beautiful hand that gave it. "May the
+Spirits punish me," he vowed, "if ever I knowingly give you cause to
+reproach me, sweetheart!" And they separated with mutual vows.
+
+That morning, on returning to the house of Lord Tchang, Ming-Y told the
+first falsehood which had ever passed his lips. He averred that his
+mother had requested him thenceforward to pass his nights at home, now
+that the weather had become so pleasant; for, though the way was
+somewhat long, he was strong and active, and needed both air and healthy
+exercise. Tchang believed all Ming-Y said, and offered no objection.
+Accordingly the lad found himself enabled to pass all his evenings at
+the house of the beautiful Sië. Each night they devoted to the same
+pleasures which had made their first acquaintance so charming: they sang
+and conversed by turns; they played at chess,--the learned game invented
+by Wu-Wang, which is an imitation of war; they composed pieces of eighty
+rhymes upon the flowers, the trees, the clouds, the streams, the birds,
+the bees. But in all accomplishments Sië far excelled her young
+sweetheart. Whenever they played at chess, it was always Ming-Y's
+general, Ming-Y's _tsiang_, who was surrounded and vanquished; when they
+composed verses, Sië's poems were ever superior to his in harmony of
+word-coloring, in elegance of form, in classic loftiness of thought.
+And the themes they selected were always the most difficult,--those of
+the poets of the Thang dynasty; the songs they sang were also the songs
+of five hundred years before,--the songs of Youen-tchin, of Thou-mou, of
+Kao-pien above all, high poet and ruler of the province of Sze-tchouen.
+
+So the summer waxed and waned upon their love, and the luminous autumn
+came, with its vapors of phantom gold, its shadows of magical purple.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then it unexpectedly happened that the father of Ming-Y, meeting his
+son's employer at Tching-tou, was asked by him: "Why must your boy
+continue to travel every evening to the city, now that the winter is
+approaching? The way is long, and when he returns in the morning he
+looks fordone with weariness. Why not permit him to slumber in my house
+during the season of snow?" And the father of Ming-Y, greatly
+astonished, responded: "Sir, my son has not visited the city, nor has he
+been to our house all this summer. I fear that he must have acquired
+wicked habits, and that he passes his nights in evil company,--perhaps
+in gaming, or in drinking with the women of the flower-boats." But the
+High Commissioner returned: "Nay! that is not to be thought of. I have
+never found any evil in the boy, and there are no taverns nor
+flower-boats nor any places of dissipation in our neighborhood. No doubt
+Ming-Y has found some amiable youth of his own age with whom to spend
+his evenings, and only told me an untruth for fear that I would not
+otherwise permit him to leave my residence. I beg that you will say
+nothing to him until I shall have sought to discover this mystery; and
+this very evening I shall send my servant to follow after him, and to
+watch whither he goes."
+
+Pelou readily assented to this proposal, and promising to visit Tchang
+the following morning, returned to his home. In the evening, when Ming-Y
+left the house of Tchang, a servant followed him unobserved at a
+distance. But on reaching the most obscure portion of the road, the boy
+disappeared from sight as suddenly as though the earth had swallowed
+him. After having long sought after him in vain, the domestic returned
+in great bewilderment to the house, and related what had taken place.
+Tchang immediately sent a messenger to Pelou.
+
+In the mean time Ming-Y, entering the chamber of his beloved, was
+surprised and deeply pained to find her in tears. "Sweetheart," she
+sobbed, wreathing her arms around his neck, "we are about to be
+separated forever, because of reasons which I cannot tell you. From the
+very first I knew this must come to pass; and nevertheless it seemed to
+me for the moment so cruelly sudden a loss, so unexpected a misfortune,
+that I could not prevent myself from weeping! After this night we shall
+never see each other again, beloved, and I know that you will not be
+able to forget me while you live; but I know also that you will become a
+great scholar, and that honors and riches will be showered upon you, and
+that some beautiful and loving woman will console you for my loss. And
+now let us speak no more of grief; but let us pass this last evening
+joyously, so that your recollection of me may not be a painful one, and
+that you may remember my laughter rather than my tears."
+
+She brushed the bright drops away, and brought wine and music and the
+melodious _kin_ of seven silken strings, and would not suffer Ming-Y to
+speak for one moment of the coming separation. And she sang him an
+ancient song about the calmness of summer lakes reflecting the blue of
+heaven only, and the calmness of the heart also, before the clouds of
+care and of grief and of weariness darken its little world. Soon they
+forgot their sorrow in the joy of song and wine; and those last hours
+seemed to Ming-Y more celestial than even the hours of their first
+bliss.
+
+But when the yellow beauty of morning came their sadness returned, and
+they wept. Once more Sië accompanied her lover to the terrace-steps; and
+as she kissed him farewell, she pressed into his hand a parting gift,--a
+little brush-case of agate, wonderfully chiselled, and worthy the table
+of a great poet. And they separated forever, shedding many tears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Still Ming-Y could not believe it was an eternal parting. "No!" he
+thought, "I shall visit her tomorrow; for I cannot now live without her,
+and I feel assured that she cannot refuse to receive me." Such were the
+thoughts that filled his mind as he reached the house of Tchang, to find
+his father and his patron standing on the porch awaiting him. Ere he
+could speak a word, Pelou demanded: "Son, in what place have you been
+passing your nights?"
+
+Seeing that his falsehood had been discovered, Ming-Y dared not make any
+reply, and remained abashed and silent, with bowed head, in the presence
+of his father. Then Pelou, striking the boy violently with his staff,
+commanded him to divulge the secret; and at last, partly through fear
+of his parent, and partly through fear of the law which ordains that
+"_the son refusing to obey his father shall be punished with one hundred
+blows of the bamboo,_" Ming-Y faltered out the history of his love.
+
+Tchang changed color at the boy's tale. "Child," exclaimed the High
+Commissioner, "I have no relative of the name of Ping; I have never
+heard of the woman you describe; I have never heard even of the house
+which you speak of. But I know also that you cannot dare to lie to
+Pelou, your honored father; there is some strange delusion in all this
+affair."
+
+Then Ming-Y produced the gifts that Sië had given him,--the lion of
+yellow jade, the brush-case of carven agate, also some original
+compositions made by the beautiful lady herself. The astonishment of
+Tchang was now shared by Pelou. Both observed that the brush-case of
+agate and the lion of jade bore the appearance of objects that had lain
+buried in the earth for centuries, and were of a workmanship beyond the
+power of living man to imitate; while the compositions proved to be
+veritable master-pieces of poetry, written in the style of the poets of
+the dynasty of Thang.
+
+"Friend Pelou," cried the High Commissioner, "let us immediately
+accompany the boy to the place where he obtained these miraculous
+things, and apply the testimony of our senses to this mystery. The boy
+is no doubt telling the truth; yet his story passes my understanding."
+And all three proceeded toward the place of the habitation of Sië.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But when they had arrived at the shadiest part of the road, where the
+perfumes were most sweet and the mosses were greenest, and the fruits of
+the wild peach flushed most pinkly, Ming-Y, gazing through the groves,
+uttered a cry of dismay. Where the azure-tiled roof had risen against
+the sky, there was now only the blue emptiness of air; where the
+green-and-gold facade had been, there was visible only the flickering of
+leaves under the aureate autumn light; and where the broad terrace had
+extended, could be discerned only a ruin,--a tomb so ancient, so deeply
+gnawed by moss, that the name graven upon it was no longer decipherable.
+The home of Sië had disappeared!
+
+All suddenly the High Commissioner smote his forehead with his hand,
+and turning to Pelou, recited the well-known verse of the ancient poet
+Tching-Kou:--
+
+    "_Surely the peach-flowers blossom over
+    the tomb of SIË-THAO._"
+
+"Friend Pelou," continued Tchang, "the beauty who bewitched your son was
+no other than she whose tomb stands there in ruin before us! Did she not
+say she was wedded to Ping-Khang? There is no family of that name, but
+Ping-Khang is indeed the name of a broad alley in the city near. There
+was a dark riddle in all that she said. She called herself Sië of
+Moun-Hiao: there is no person of that name; there is no street of that
+name; but the Chinese characters _Moun_ and _hiao_, placed together,
+form the character 'Kiao.' Listen! The alley Ping-Khang, situated in
+the street Kiao, was the place where dwelt the great courtesans of the
+dynasty of Thang! Did she not sing the songs of Kao-pien? And upon the
+brush-case and the paper-weight she gave your son, are there not
+characters which read, '_Pure object of art belonging to Kao, of the
+city of Pho-hai_'? That city no longer exists; but the memory of
+Kao-pien remains, for he was governor of the province of Sze-tchouen,
+and a mighty poet. And when he dwelt in the land of Chou, was not his
+favorite the beautiful wanton Sië,--Sië-Thao, unmatched for grace among
+all the women of her day? It was he who made her a gift of those
+manuscripts of song; it was he who gave her those objects of rare art.
+Sië-Thao died not as other women die. Her limbs may have crumbled to
+dust; yet something of her still lives in this deep wood,--her Shadow
+still haunts this shadowy place."
+
+Tchang ceased to speak. A vague fear fell upon the three. The thin mists
+of the morning made dim the distances of green, and deepened the ghostly
+beauty of the woods. A faint breeze passed by, leaving a trail of
+blossom-scent,--a last odor of dying flowers,--thin as that which clings
+to the silk of a forgotten robe; and, as it passed, the trees seemed to
+whisper across the silence, "_Sië-Thao_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Fearing greatly for his son, Pelou sent the lad away at once to the
+city of Kwang-tchau-fu. And there, in after years, Ming-Y obtained high
+dignities and honors by reason of his talents and his learning; and he
+married the daughter of an illustrious house, by whom he became the
+father of sons and daughters famous for their virtues and their
+accomplishments. Never could he forget Sië-Thao; and yet it is said that
+he never spoke of her,--not even when his children begged him to tell
+them the story of two beautiful objects that always lay upon his
+writing-table: a lion of yellow jade, and a brush-case of carven agate.
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+The Legend of Tchi-Niu
+
+
+     A SOUND OF GONGS, A SOUND OF SONG,--THE SONG OF THE BUILDERS
+     BUILDING THE DWELLINGS OF THE DEAD:--
+
+          _Khiû tchî yîng-yîng.
+          Toû tchî hoûng-hoûng.
+          Tch[)o] tchî tông-tông.
+          Si[)o] liú pîng-pîng._
+
+
+
+
+THE LEGEND OF TCHI-NIU.
+
+
+In the quaint commentary accompanying the text of that holy book of
+Lao-tseu called _Kan-ing-p'ien_ may be found a little story so old that
+the name of the one who first told it has been forgotten for a thousand
+years, yet so beautiful that it lives still in the memory of four
+hundred millions of people, like a prayer that, once learned, is forever
+remembered. The Chinese writer makes no mention of any city nor of any
+province, although even in the relation of the most ancient traditions
+such an omission is rare; we are only told that the name of the hero of
+the legend was Tong-yong, and that he lived in the years of the great
+dynasty of Han, some twenty centuries ago.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tong-Yong's mother had died while he was yet an infant; and when he
+became a youth of nineteen years his father also passed away, leaving
+him utterly alone in the world, and without resources of any sort; for,
+being a very poor man, Tong's father had put himself to great straits to
+educate the lad, and had not been able to lay by even one copper coin of
+his earnings. And Tong lamented greatly to find himself so destitute
+that he could not honor the memory of that good father by having the
+customary rites of burial performed, and a carven tomb erected upon a
+propitious site. The poor only are friends of the poor; and among all
+those whom Tong knew; there was no one able to assist him in defraying
+the expenses of the funeral. In one way only could the youth obtain
+money,--by selling himself as a slave to some rich cultivator; and this
+he at last decided to do. In vain his friends did their utmost to
+dissuade him; and to no purpose did they attempt to delay the
+accomplishment of his sacrifice by beguiling promises of future aid.
+Tong only replied that he would sell his freedom a hundred times, if it
+were possible, rather than suffer his father's memory to remain
+unhonored even for a brief season. And furthermore, confiding in his
+youth and strength, he determined to put a high price upon his
+servitude,--a price which would enable him to build a handsome tomb, but
+which it would be well-nigh impossible for him ever to repay.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Accordingly he repaired to the broad public place where slaves and
+debtors were exposed for sale, and seated himself upon a bench of stone,
+having affixed to his shoulders a placard inscribed with the terms of
+his servitude and the list of his qualifications as a laborer. Many who
+read the characters upon the placard smiled disdainfully at the price
+asked, and passed on without a word; others lingered only to question
+him out of simple curiosity; some commended him with hollow praise; some
+openly mocked his unselfishness, and laughed at his childish piety. Thus
+many hours wearily passed, and Tong had almost despaired of finding a
+master, when there rode up a high official of the province,--a grave
+and handsome man, lord of a thousand slaves, and owner of vast estates.
+Reining in his Tartar horse, the official halted to read the placard and
+to consider the value of the slave. He did not smile, or advise, or ask
+any questions; but having observed the price asked, and the fine strong
+limbs of the youth, purchased him without further ado, merely ordering
+his attendant to pay the sum and to see that the necessary papers were
+made out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus Tong found himself enabled to fulfil the wish of his heart, and to
+have a monument built which, although of small size, was destined to
+delight the eyes of all who beheld it, being designed by cunning artists
+and executed by skilful sculptors. And while it was yet designed only,
+the pious rites were performed, the silver coin was placed in the mouth
+of the dead, the white lanterns were hung at the door, the holy prayers
+were recited, and paper shapes of all things the departed might need in
+the land of the Genii were consumed in consecrated fire. And after the
+geomancers and the necromancers had chosen a burial-spot which no
+unlucky star could shine upon, a place of rest which no demon or dragon
+might ever disturb, the beautiful _chih_ was built. Then was the phantom
+money strewn along the way; the funeral procession departed from the
+dwelling of the dead, and with prayers and lamentation the mortal
+remains of Tong's good father were borne to the tomb.
+
+Then Tong entered as a slave into the service of his purchaser, who
+allotted him a little hut to dwell in; and thither Tong carried with him
+those wooden tablets, bearing the ancestral names, before which filial
+piety must daily burn the incense of prayer, and perform the tender
+duties of family worship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thrice had spring perfumed the breast of the land with flowers, and
+thrice had been celebrated that festival of the dead which is called
+_Siu-fan-ti_, and thrice had Tong swept and garnished his father's tomb
+and presented his fivefold offering of fruits and meats. The period of
+mourning had passed, yet he had not ceased to mourn for his parent. The
+years revolved with their moons, bringing him no hour of joy, no day of
+happy rest; yet he never lamented his servitude, or failed to perform
+the rites of ancestral worship,--until at last the fever of the
+rice-fields laid strong hold upon him, and he could not arise from his
+couch; and his fellow-laborers thought him destined to die. There was no
+one to wait upon him, no one to care for his needs, inasmuch as slaves
+and servants were wholly busied with the duties of the household or the
+labor of the fields,--all departing to toil at sunrise and returning
+weary only after the sundown.
+
+Now, while the sick youth slumbered the fitful slumber of exhaustion one
+sultry noon, he dreamed that a strange and beautiful woman stood by him,
+and bent above him and touched his forehead with the long, fine fingers
+of her shapely hand. And at her cool touch a weird sweet shock passed
+through him, and all his veins tingled as if thrilled by new life.
+Opening his eyes in wonder, he saw verily bending over him the charming
+being of whom he had dreamed, and he knew that her lithe hand really
+caressed his throbbing forehead. But the flame of the fever was gone, a
+delicious coolness now penetrated every fibre of his body, and the
+thrill of which he had dreamed still tingled in his blood like a great
+joy. Even at the same moment the eyes of the gentle visitor met his own,
+and he saw they were singularly beautiful, and shone like splendid black
+jewels under brows curved like the wings of the swallow. Yet their calm
+gaze seemed to pass through him as light through crystal; and a vague
+awe came upon him, so that the question which had risen to his lips
+found no utterance. Then she, still caressing him, smiled and said: "I
+have come to restore thy strength and to be thy wife. Arise and worship
+with me."
+
+Her clear voice had tones melodious as a bird's song; but in her gaze
+there was an imperious power which Tong felt he dare not resist. Rising
+from his couch, he was astounded to find his strength wholly restored;
+but the cool, slender hand which held his own led him away so swiftly
+that he had little time for amazement. He would have given years of
+existence for courage to speak of his misery, to declare his utter
+inability to maintain a wife; but something irresistible in the long
+dark eyes of his companion forbade him to speak; and as though his
+inmost thought had been discerned by that wondrous gaze, she said to
+him, in the same clear voice, "_I will provide._" Then shame made him
+blush at the thought of his wretched aspect and tattered apparel; but he
+observed that she also was poorly attired, like a woman of the
+people,--wearing no ornament of any sort, nor even shoes upon her feet.
+And before he had yet spoken to her, they came before the ancestral
+tablets; and there she knelt with him and prayed, and pledged him in a
+cup of wine,--brought he knew not from whence,--and together they
+worshipped Heaven and Earth. Thus she became his wife.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A mysterious marriage it seemed, for neither on that day nor at any
+future time could Tong venture to ask his wife the name of her family,
+or of the place whence she came, and he could not answer any of the
+curious questions which his fellow-laborers put to him concerning her;
+and she, moreover, never uttered a word about herself, except to say
+that her name was Tchi. But although Tong had such awe of her that while
+her eyes were upon him he was as one having no will of his own, he loved
+her unspeakably; and the thought of his serfdom ceased to weigh upon him
+from the hour of his marriage. As through magic the little dwelling had
+become transformed: its misery was masked with charming paper
+devices,--with dainty decorations created out of nothing by that pretty
+jugglery of which woman only knows the secret.
+
+Each morning at dawn the young husband found a well-prepared and ample
+repast awaiting him, and each evening also upon his return; but the wife
+all day sat at her loom, weaving silk after a fashion unlike anything
+which had ever been seen before in that province. For as she wove, the
+silk flowed from the loom like a slow current of glossy gold, bearing
+upon its undulations strange forms of violet and crimson and
+jewel-green: shapes of ghostly horsemen riding upon horses, and of
+phantom chariots dragon-drawn, and of standards of trailing cloud. In
+every dragon's beard glimmered the mystic pearl; in every rider's helmet
+sparkled the gem of rank. And each day Tchi would weave a great piece
+of such figured silk; and the fame of her weaving spread abroad. From
+far and near people thronged to see the marvellous work; and the
+silk-merchants of great cities heard of it, and they sent messengers to
+Tchi, asking her that she should weave for them and teach them her
+secret. Then she wove for them, as they desired, in return for the
+silver cubes which they brought her; but when they prayed her to teach
+them, she laughed and said, "Assuredly I could never teach you, for no
+one among you has fingers like mine." And indeed no man could discern
+her fingers when she wove, any more than he might behold the wings of a
+bee vibrating in swift flight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The seasons passed, and Tong never knew want, so well did his beautiful
+wife fulfil her promise,--"_I will provide_"; and the cubes of bright
+silver brought by the silk-merchants were piled up higher and higher in
+the great carven chest which Tchi had bought for the storage of the
+household goods.
+
+One morning, at last, when Tong, having finished his repast, was about
+to depart to the fields, Tchi unexpectedly bade him remain; and opening
+the great chest, she took out of it and gave him a document written in
+the official characters called _li-shu_. And Tong, looking at it, cried
+out and leaped in his joy, for it was the certificate of his
+manumission. Tchi had secretly purchased her husband's freedom with the
+price of her wondrous silks!
+
+"Thou shalt labor no more for any master," she said, "but for thine own
+sake only. And I have also bought this dwelling, with all which is
+therein, and the tea-fields to the south, and the mulberry groves hard
+by,--all of which are thine."
+
+Then Tong, beside himself for gratefulness, would have prostrated
+himself in worship before her, but that she would not suffer it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus he was made free; and prosperity came to him with his freedom; and
+whatsoever he gave to the sacred earth was returned to him centupled;
+and his servants loved him and blessed the beautiful Tchi, so silent and
+yet so kindly to all about her. But the silk-loom soon remained
+untouched, for Tchi gave birth to a son,--a boy so beautiful that Tong
+wept with delight when he looked upon him. And thereafter the wife
+devoted herself wholly to the care of the child.
+
+Now it soon became manifest that the boy was not less wonderful than his
+wonderful mother. In the third month of his age he could speak; in the
+seventh month he could repeat by heart the proverbs of the sages, and
+recite the holy prayers; before the eleventh month he could use the
+writing-brush with skill, and copy in shapely characters the precepts of
+Lao-tseu. And the priests of the temples came to behold him and to
+converse with him, and they marvelled at the charm of the child and the
+wisdom of what he said; and they blessed Tong, saying: "Surely this son
+of thine is a gift from the Master of Heaven, a sign that the immortals
+love thee. May thine eyes behold a hundred happy summers!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was in the Period of the Eleventh Moon: the flowers had passed away,
+the perfume of the summer had flown, the winds were growing chill, and
+in Tong's home the evening fires were lighted. Long the husband and wife
+sat in the mellow glow,--he speaking much of his hopes and joys, and of
+his son that was to be so grand a man, and of many paternal projects;
+while she, speaking little, listened to his words, and often turned her
+wonderful eyes upon him with an answering smile. Never had she seemed so
+beautiful before; and Tong, watching her face, marked not how the night
+waned, nor how the fire sank low, nor how the wind sang in the leafless
+trees without.
+
+All suddenly Tchi arose without speaking, and took his hand in hers and
+led him, gently as on that strange wedding-morning, to the cradle where
+their boy slumbered, faintly smiling in his dreams. And in that moment
+there came upon Tong the same strange fear that he knew when Tchi's eyes
+had first met his own,--the vague fear that love and trust had calmed,
+but never wholly cast out, like unto the fear of the gods. And all
+unknowingly, like one yielding to the pressure of mighty invisible
+hands, he bowed himself low before her, kneeling as to a divinity. Now,
+when he lifted his eyes again to her face, he closed them forthwith in
+awe; for she towered before him taller than any mortal woman, and there
+was a glow about her as of sunbeams, and the light of her limbs shone
+through her garments. But her sweet voice came to him with all the
+tenderness of other hours, saying: "_Lo! my beloved, the moment has come
+in which I must forsake thee; for I was never of mortal born, and the
+Invisible may incarnate themselves for a time only. Yet I leave with
+thee the pledge of our love,--this fair son, who shall ever be to thee
+as faithful and as fond as thou thyself hast been. Know, my beloved,
+that I was sent to thee even by the Master of Heaven, in reward of thy
+filial piety, and that I must now return to the glory of His house:
+I AM THE GODDESS TCHI-NIU._"
+
+Even as she ceased to speak, the great glow faded; and Tong, re-opening
+his eyes, knew that she had passed away forever,--mysteriously as pass
+the winds of heaven, irrevocably as the light of a flame blown out. Yet
+all the doors were barred, all the windows unopened. Still the child
+slept, smiling in his sleep. Outside, the darkness was breaking; the sky
+was brightening swiftly; the night was past. With splendid majesty the
+East threw open high gates of gold for the coming of the sun; and,
+illuminated by the glory of his coming, the vapors of morning wrought
+themselves into marvellous shapes of shifting color,--into forms weirdly
+beautiful as the silken dreams woven in the loom of Tchi-Niu.
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+The Return of Yen-Tchin-King
+
+
+    _Before me ran, as a herald runneth, the Leader of the Moon;
+    And the Spirit of the Wind followed after me,--quickening his flight._
+
+     LI-SAO.
+
+
+
+
+THE RETURN OF YEN-TCHIN-KING
+
+
+In the thirty-eighth chapter of the holy book, _Kan-ing-p'ien_, wherein
+the Recompense of Immortality is considered, may be found the legend of
+Yen-Tchin-King. A thousand years have passed since the passing of the
+good Tchin-King; for it was in the period of the greatness of Thang that
+he lived and died.
+
+Now, in those days when Yen-Tchin-King was Supreme Judge of one of the
+Six August Tribunals, one Li-hi-lié, a soldier mighty for evil, lifted
+the black banner of revolt, and drew after him, as a tide of
+destruction, the millions of the northern provinces. And learning of
+these things, and knowing also that Hi-lié was the most ferocious of
+men, who respected nothing on earth save fearlessness, the Son of Heaven
+commanded Tchin-King that he should visit Hi-lié and strive to recall
+the rebel to duty, and read unto the people who followed after him in
+revolt the Emperor's letter of reproof and warning. For Tchin-King was
+famed throughout the provinces for his wisdom, his rectitude, and his
+fearlessness; and the Son of Heaven believed that if Hi-lié would listen
+to the words of any living man steadfast in loyalty and virtue, he would
+listen to the words of Tchin-King. So Tchin-King arrayed himself in his
+robes of office, and set his house in order; and, having embraced his
+wife and his children, mounted his horse and rode away alone to the
+roaring camp of the rebels, bearing the Emperor's letter in his bosom.
+"I shall return; fear not!" were his last words to the gray servant who
+watched him from the terrace as he rode.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And Tchin-King at last descended from his horse, and entered into the
+rebel camp, and, passing through that huge gathering of war, stood in
+the presence of Hi-lié. High sat the rebel among his chiefs, encircled
+by the wave-lightning of swords and the thunders of ten thousand gongs:
+above him undulated the silken folds of the Black Dragon, while a vast
+fire rose bickering before him. Also Tchin-King saw that the tongues of
+that fire were licking human bones, and that skulls of men lay
+blackening among the ashes. Yet he was not afraid to look upon the fire,
+nor into the eyes of Hi-lié; but drawing from his bosom the roll of
+perfumed yellow silk upon which the words of the Emperor were written,
+and kissing it, he made ready to read, while the multitude became
+silent. Then, in a strong, clear voice he began:--
+
+"_The words of the Celestial and August, the Son of Heaven, the Divine
+Ko-Tsu-Tchin-Yao-ti, unto the rebel Li-Hi-lié and those that follow
+him._"
+
+And a roar went up like the roar of the sea,--a roar of rage, and the
+hideous battle-moan, like the moan of a forest in storm,--"_Hoo!
+hoo-oo-oo-oo!_"--and the sword-lightnings brake loose, and the thunder
+of the gongs moved the ground beneath the messenger's feet. But Hi-lié
+waved his gilded wand, and again there was silence. "Nay!" spake the
+rebel chief; "let the dog bark!" So Tchin-King spake on:--
+
+"_Knowest thou not, O most rash and foolish of men, that thou leadest
+the people only into the mouth of the Dragon of Destruction? Knowest
+thou not, also, that the people of my kingdom are the first-born of the
+Master of Heaven? So it hath been written that he who doth needlessly
+subject the people to wounds and death shall not be suffered by Heaven
+to live! Thou who wouldst subvert those laws founded by the
+wise,--those laws in obedience to which may happiness and prosperity
+alone be found,--thou art committing the greatest of all
+crimes,--the crime that is never forgiven!_
+
+"_O my people, think not that I your Emperor, I your Father, seek your
+destruction. I desire only your happiness, your prosperity, your
+greatness; let not your folly provoke the severity of your Celestial
+Parent. Follow not after madness and blind rage; hearken rather to the
+wise words of my messenger._"
+
+"_Hoo! hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!_" roared the people, gathering fury. "_Hoo!
+hoo-oo-oo-oo!_"--till the mountains rolled back the cry like the rolling
+of a typhoon; and once more the pealing of the gongs paralyzed voice and
+hearing. Then Tchin-King, looking at Hi-lié, saw that he laughed, and
+that the words of the letter would not again be listened to. Therefore
+he read on to the end without looking about him, resolved to perform his
+mission in so far as lay in his power. And having read all, he would
+have given the letter to Hi-lié; but Hi-lié would not extend his hand to
+take it. Therefore Tchin-King replaced it in his bosom, and folding his
+arms, looked Hi-lié calmly in the face, and waited. Again Hi-lié waved
+his gilded wand; and the roaring ceased, and the booming of the gongs,
+until nothing save the fluttering of the Dragon-banner could be heard.
+Then spake Hi-lié, with an evil smile,--
+
+"Tchin-King, O son of a dog! if thou dost not now take the oath of
+fealty, and bow thyself before me, and salute me with the salutation of
+Emperors,--even with the _luh-kao_, the triple prostration,--into that
+fire thou shalt be thrown."
+
+But Tchin-King, turning his back upon the usurper, bowed himself a
+moment in worship to Heaven and Earth; and then rising suddenly, ere any
+man could lay hand upon him, he leaped into the towering flame, and
+stood there, with folded arms, like a God.
+
+Then Hi-lié leaped to his feet in amazement, and shouted to his men; and
+they snatched Tchin-King from the fire, and wrung the flames from his
+robes with their naked hands, and extolled him, and praised him to his
+face. And even Hi-lié himself descended from his seat, and spoke fair
+words to him, saying: "O Tchin-King, I see thou art indeed a brave man
+and true, and worthy of all honor; be seated among us, I pray thee, and
+partake of whatever it is in our power to bestow!"
+
+But Tchin-King, looking upon him unswervingly, replied in a voice clear
+as the voice of a great bell,--
+
+"Never, O Hi-lié, shall I accept aught from thy hand, save death, so
+long as thou shalt continue in the path of wrath and folly. And never
+shall it be said that Tchin-King sat him down among rebels and traitors,
+among murderers and robbers."
+
+Then Hi-lié in sudden fury, smote him with his sword; and Tchin-King
+fell to the earth and died, striving even in his death to bow his head
+toward the South,--toward the place of the Emperor's palace,--toward the
+presence of his beloved Master.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Even at the same hour the Son of Heaven, alone in the inner chamber of
+his palace, became aware of a Shape prostrate before his feet; and when
+he spake, the Shape arose and stood before him, and he saw that it was
+Tchin-King. And the Emperor would have questioned him; yet ere he could
+question, the familiar voice spake, saying:
+
+"Son of Heaven, the mission confided to me I have performed; and thy
+command hath been accomplished to the extent of thy humble servant's
+feeble power. But even now must I depart, that I may enter the service
+of another Master."
+
+And looking, the Emperor perceived that the Golden Tigers upon the wall
+were visible through the form of Tchin-King; and a strange coldness,
+like a winter wind, passed through the chamber; and the figure faded
+out. Then the Emperor knew that the Master of whom his faithful servant
+had spoken was none other than the Master of Heaven.
+
+Also at the same hour the gray servant of Tchin-King's house beheld him
+passing through the apartments, smiling as he was wont to smile when he
+saw that all things were as he desired. "Is it well with thee, my lord?"
+questioned the aged man. And a voice answered him: "It is well"; but the
+presence of Tchin-King had passed away before the answer came.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So the armies of the Son of Heaven strove with the rebels. But the land
+was soaked with blood and blackened with fire; and the corpses of whole
+populations were carried by the rivers to feed the fishes of the sea;
+and still the war prevailed through many a long red year. Then came to
+aid the Son of Heaven the hordes that dwell in the desolations of the
+West and North,--horsemen born, a nation of wild archers, each mighty to
+bend a two-hundred-pound bow until the ears should meet. And as a
+whirlwind they came against rebellion, raining raven-feathered arrows in
+a storm of death; and they prevailed against Hi-lié and his people. Then
+those that survived destruction and defeat submitted, and promised
+allegiance; and once more was the law of righteousness restored. But
+Tchin-King had been dead for many summers.
+
+And the Son of Heaven sent word to his victorious generals that they
+should bring back with them the bones of his faithful servant, to be
+laid with honor in a mausoleum erected by imperial decree. So the
+generals of the Celestial and August sought after the nameless grave and
+found it, and had the earth taken up, and made ready to remove the
+coffin.
+
+But the coffin crumbled into dust before their eyes; for the worms had
+gnawed it, and the hungry earth had devoured its substance, leaving only
+a phantom shell that vanished at touch of the light. And lo! as it
+vanished, all beheld lying there the perfect form and features of the
+good Tchin-King. Corruption had not touched him, nor had the worms
+disturbed his rest, nor had the bloom of life departed from his face.
+And he seemed to dream only,--comely to see as upon the morning of his
+bridal, and smiling as the holy images smile, with eyelids closed, in
+the twilight of the great pagodas.
+
+Then spoke a priest, standing by the grave: "O my children, this is
+indeed a Sign from the Master of Heaven; in such wise do the Powers
+Celestial preserve them that are chosen to be numbered with the
+Immortals. Death may not prevail over them, neither may corruption come
+nigh them. Verily the blessed Tchin-King hath taken his place among the
+divinities of Heaven!"
+
+Then they bore Tchin-King back to his native place, and laid him with
+highest honors in the mausoleum which the Emperor had commanded; and
+there he sleeps, incorruptible forever, arrayed in his robes of state.
+Upon his tomb are sculptured the emblems of his greatness and his wisdom
+and his virtue, and the signs of his office, and the Four Precious
+Things: and the monsters which are holy symbols mount giant guard in
+stone about it; and the weird Dogs of Fo keep watch before it, as before
+the temples of the gods.
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+The Tradition of the Tea-Plant
+
+
+     SANG A CHINESE HEART FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO:--
+
+        _There is Somebody of whom I am thinking.
+        Far away there is Somebody of whom I am thinking.
+        A hundred leagues of mountains lie between us:--
+        Yet the same Moon shines upon us, and the passing Wind
+             breathes upon us both._
+
+
+
+
+THE TRADITION OF THE TEA-PLANT
+
+    "Good is the continence of the eye;
+    Good is the continence of the ear;
+    Good is the continence of the nostrils;
+    Good is the continence of the tongue;
+    Good is the continence of the body;
+    Good is the continence of speech;
+    Good is all...."
+
+
+Again the Vulture of Temptation soared to the highest heaven of his
+contemplation, bringing his soul down, down, reeling and fluttering,
+back to the World of Illusion. Again the memory made dizzy his thought,
+like the perfume of some venomous flower. Yet he had seen the bayadere
+for an instant only, when passing through Kasí upon his way to
+China,--to the vast empire of souls that thirsted after the refreshment
+of Buddha's law, as sun-parched fields thirst for the life-giving rain.
+When she called him, and dropped her little gift into his mendicant's
+bowl, he had indeed lifted his fan before his face, yet not quickly
+enough; and the penally of that fault had followed him a thousand
+leagues,--pursued after him even into the strange land to which he had
+come to hear the words of the Universal Teacher. Accursed beauty! surely
+framed by the Tempter of tempters, by Mara himself, for the perdition of
+the just! Wisely had Bhagavat warned his disciples: "O ye Çramanas,
+women are not to be looked upon! And if ye chance to meet women, ye must
+not suffer your eyes to dwell upon them; but, maintaining holy reserve,
+speak not to them at all. Then fail not to whisper unto your own
+hearts, 'Lo, we are Çramanas, whose duty it is to remain uncontaminated
+by the corruptions of this world, even as the Lotos, which suffereth no
+vileness to cling unto its leaves, though it blossom amid the refuse of
+the wayside ditch.'" Then also came to his memory, but with a new and
+terrible meaning, the words of the Twentieth-and-Third of the
+Admonitions:--
+
+"Of all attachments unto objects of desire, the strongest indeed is the
+attachment to form. Happily, this passion is unique; for were there any
+other like unto it, then to enter the Perfect Way were impossible."
+
+How, indeed, thus haunted by the illusion of form, was he to fulfil the
+vow that he had made to pass a night and a day in perfect and unbroken
+meditation? Already the night was beginning! Assuredly, for sickness of
+the soul, for fever of the spirit, there was no physic save prayer. The
+sunset was swiftly fading out. He strove to pray:--
+
+"_O the Jewel in the Lotos!_
+
+"Even as the tortoise withdraweth its extremities into its shell, let
+me, O Blessed One, withdraw my senses wholly into meditation!
+
+"_O the Jewel in the Lotos!_
+
+"For even as rain penetrateth the broken roof of a dwelling long
+uninhabited, so may passion enter the soul uninhabited by meditation.
+
+"_O the Jewel in the Lotos!_
+
+"Even as still water that hath deposited all its slime, so let my soul,
+O Tathâgata, be made pure! Give me strong power to rise above the
+world, O Master, even as the wild bird rises from its marsh to follow
+the pathway of the Sun!
+
+"_O the Jewel in the Lotos!_
+
+"By day shineth the sun, by night shineth the moon; shineth also the
+warrior in harness of war; shineth likewise in meditations the Çramana.
+But the Buddha at all times, by night or by day, shineth ever the same,
+illuminating the world.
+
+"_O the Jewel in the Lotos!_
+
+"Let me cease, O thou Perfectly Awakened, to remain as an Ape in the
+World-forest, forever ascending and descending in search of the fruits
+of folly. Swift as the twining of serpents, vast as the growth of lianas
+in a forest, are the all-encircling growths of the Plant of Desire.
+
+"_O the Jewel in the Lotos!_"
+
+Vain his prayer, alas! vain also his invocation! The mystic meaning of
+the holy text--the sense of the Lotos, the sense of the Jewel--had
+evaporated from the words, and their monotonous utterance now served
+only to lend more dangerous definition to the memory that tempted and
+tortured him. _O the jewel in her ear!_ What lotos-bud more dainty than
+the folded flower of flesh, with its dripping of diamond-fire! Again he
+saw it, and the curve of the cheek beyond, luscious to look upon as
+beautiful brown fruit. How true the Two Hundred and Eighty-Fourth verse
+of the Admonitions!--"So long as a man shall not have torn from his
+heart even the smallest rootlet of that liana of desire which draweth
+his thought toward women, even so long shall his soul remain fettered."
+And there came to his mind also the Three Hundred and Forty-Fifth verse
+of the same blessed book, regarding fetters:
+
+"In bonds of rope, wise teachers have said, there is no strength; nor in
+fetters of wood, nor yet in fetters of iron. Much stronger than any of
+these is the fetter of _concern for the jewelled earrings of women_."
+
+"Omniscient Gotama!" he cried,--"all-seeing Tathâgata! How multiform the
+Consolation of Thy Word! how marvellous Thy understanding of the human
+heart! Was this also one of Thy temptations?--one of the myriad
+illusions marshalled before Thee by Mara in that night when the earth
+rocked as a chariot, and the sacred trembling passed from sun to sun,
+from system to system, from universe to universe, from eternity to
+eternity?"
+
+_O the jewel in her ear!_ The vision would not go! Nay, each time it
+hovered before his thought it seemed to take a warmer life, a fonder
+look, a fairer form; to develop with his weakness; to gain force from
+his enervation. He saw the eyes, large, limpid, soft, and black as a
+deer's; the pearls in the dark hair, and the pearls in the pink mouth;
+the lips curling to a kiss, a flower-kiss; and a fragrance seemed to
+float to his senses, sweet, strange, soporific,--a perfume of youth, an
+odor of woman. Rising to his feet, with strong resolve he pronounced
+again the sacred invocation; and he recited the holy words of the
+_Chapter of Impermanency_:
+
+"Gazing upon the heavens and upon the earth ye must say, _These are not
+permanent_. Gazing upon the mountains and the rivers, ye must say,
+_These are not permanent_. Gazing upon the forms and upon the faces
+of exterior beings, and beholding their growth and their development, ye
+must say, _These are not permanent_."
+
+And nevertheless! how sweet illusion! The illusion of the great sun; the
+illusion of the shadow-casting hills; the illusion of waters, formless
+and multiform; the illusion of--Nay, nay I what impious fancy! Accursed
+girl! yet, yet! why should he curse her? Had she ever done aught to
+merit the malediction of an ascetic? Never, never! Only her form, the
+memory of her, the beautiful phantom of her, the accursed phantom of
+her! What was she? An illusion creating illusions, a mockery, a dream, a
+shadow, a vanity, a vexation of spirit! The fault, the sin, was in
+himself, in his rebellious thought, in his untamed memory. Though
+mobile as water, intangible as vapor, Thought, nevertheless, may be
+tamed by the Will, may be harnessed to the chariot of Wisdom--must
+be!--that happiness be found. And he recited the blessed verses of the
+"Book of the Way of the Law":--
+
+"_All forms are only temporary._" When this great truth is fully
+comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This is the
+Way of Purification.
+
+"_All forms are subject unto pain._" When this great truth is fully
+comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This is the
+Way of Purification.
+
+"_All forms are without substantial reality._" When this great truth is
+fully comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This
+is the way of ...
+
+
+_Her_ form, too, unsubstantial, unreal, an illusion only, though
+comeliest of illusions? She had given him alms! Was the merit of the
+giver illusive also,--illusive like the grace of the supple fingers that
+gave? Assuredly there were mysteries in the Abhidharma impenetrable,
+incomprehensible!... It was a golden coin, stamped with the symbol of an
+elephant,--not more of an illusion, indeed, than the gifts of Kings to
+the Buddha! Gold upon her bosom also, less fine than the gold of her
+skin. Naked between the silken sash and the narrow breast-corslet, her
+young waist curved glossy and pliant as a bow. Richer the silver in her
+voice than in the hollow _pagals_ that made a moonlight about her
+ankles! But her smile!--the little teeth like flower-stamens in the
+perfumed blossom of her mouth!
+
+
+O weakness! O shame! How had the strong Charioteer of Resolve thus lost
+his control over the wild team of fancy! Was this languor of the Will a
+signal of coming peril, the peril of slumber? So strangely vivid those
+fancies were, so brightly definite, as about to take visible form, to
+move with factitious life, to play some unholy drama upon the stage of
+dreams! "O Thou Fully Awakened!" he cried aloud, "help now thy humble
+disciple to obtain the blessed wakefulness of perfect contemplation! let
+him find force to fulfil his vow! suffer not Mara to prevail against
+him!" And he recited the eternal verses of the Chapter of Wakefulness:--
+
+"_Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!_
+Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the Law.
+
+"_Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!_
+Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the
+Community.
+
+"_Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!_
+Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the Body.
+
+"_Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!_
+Unceasingly, by day and night, their minds know the sweetness of perfect
+peace.
+
+"_Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!_
+Unceasingly, by day and night, their minds enjoy the deep peace of
+meditation."
+
+
+There came a murmur to his ears; a murmuring of many voices, smothering
+the utterances of his own, like a tumult of waters. The stars went out
+before his sight; the heavens darkened their infinities: all things
+became viewless, became blackness; and the great murmur deepened, like
+the murmur of a rising tide; and the earth seemed to sink from beneath
+him. His feet no longer touched the ground; a sense of supernatural
+buoyancy pervaded every fibre of his body: he felt himself floating in
+obscurity; then sinking softly, slowly, like a feather dropped from the
+pinnacle of a temple. Was this death? Nay, for all suddenly, as
+transported by the Sixth Supernatural Power, he stood again in
+light,--a perfumed, sleepy light, vapory, beautiful,--that bathed the
+marvellous streets of some Indian city. Now the nature of the murmur
+became manifest to him; for he moved with a mighty throng, a people of
+pilgrims, a nation of worshippers. But these were not of his faith; they
+bore upon their foreheads the smeared symbols of obscene gods! Still, he
+could not escape from their midst; the mile-broad human torrent bore him
+irresistibly with it, as a leaf is swept by the waters of the Ganges.
+Rajahs were there with their trains, and princes riding upon elephants,
+and Brahmins robed in their vestments, and swarms of voluptuous
+dancing-girls, moving to chant of _kabit_ and _damâri_. But whither,
+whither? Out of the city into the sun they passed, between avenues of
+banyan, down colonnades of palm. But whither, whither?
+
+Blue-distant, a mountain of carven stone appeared before them,--the
+Temple, lifting to heaven its wilderness of chiselled pinnacles,
+flinging to the sky the golden spray of its decoration. Higher it grew
+with approach, the blue tones changed to gray, the outlines sharpened in
+the light. Then each detail became visible: the elephants of the
+pedestals standing upon tortoises of rock; the great grim faces of the
+capitals; the serpents and monsters writhing among the friezes; the
+many-headed gods of basalt in their galleries of fretted niches, tier
+above tier; the pictured foulnesses, the painted lusts, the divinities
+of abomination. And, yawning in the sloping precipice of sculpture,
+beneath a frenzied swarming of gods and Gopia,--a beetling pyramid of
+limbs and bodies interlocked,--the Gate, cavernous and shadowy as the
+mouth of Siva, devoured the living multitude.
+
+The eddy of the throng whirled him with it to the vastness of the
+interior. None seemed to note his yellow robe, none even to observe his
+presence. Giant aisles intercrossed their heights above him; myriads of
+mighty pillars, fantastically carven, filed away to invisibility behind
+the yellow illumination of torch-fires. Strange images, weirdly
+sensuous, loomed up through haze of incense. Colossal figures, that at a
+distance assumed the form of elephants or garuda-birds, changed aspect
+when approached, and revealed as the secret of their design an
+interplaiting of the bodies of women; while one divinity rode all the
+monstrous allegories,--one divinity or demon, eternally the same in the
+repetition of the sculptor, universally visible as though
+self-multiplied. The huge pillars themselves were symbols, figures,
+carnalities; the orgiastic spirit of that worship lived and writhed in
+the contorted bronze of the lamps, the twisted gold of the cups, the
+chiselled marble of the tanks....
+
+How far had he proceeded? He knew not; the journey among those countless
+columns, past those armies of petrified gods, down lanes of flickering
+lights, seemed longer than the voyage of a caravan, longer than his
+pilgrimage to China! But suddenly, inexplicably, there came a silence as
+of cemeteries; the living ocean seemed to have ebbed away from about
+him, to have been engulfed within abysses of subterranean architecture!
+He found himself alone in some strange crypt before a basin,
+shell-shaped and shallow, bearing in its centre a rounded column of less
+than human height, whose smooth and spherical summit was wreathed with
+flowers. Lamps similarly formed, and fed with oil of palm, hung above
+it. There was no other graven image, no visible divinity. Flowers of
+countless varieties lay heaped upon the pavement; they covered its
+surface like a carpet, thick, soft; they exhaled their ghosts beneath
+his feet. The perfume seemed to penetrate his brain,--a perfume
+sensuous, intoxicating, unholy; an unconquerable languor mastered his
+will, and he sank to rest upon the floral offerings.
+
+The sound of a tread, light as a whisper, approached through the heavy
+stillness, with a drowsy tinkling of _pagals_, a tintinnabulation of
+anklets. All suddenly he felt glide about his neck the tepid
+smoothness of a woman's arm. _She, she!_ his Illusion, his
+Temptation; but how transformed, transfigured!--preternatural in her
+loveliness, incomprehensible in her charm! Delicate as a jasmine-petal
+the cheek that touched his own; deep as night, sweet as summer, the
+eyes that watched him. "_Heart's-thief,_" her flower-lips
+whispered,--"_heart's-thief, how have I sought for thee! How have I
+found thee! Sweets I bring thee, my beloved; lips and bosom; fruit and
+blossom. Hast thirst? Drink from the well of mine eyes! Wouldst
+sacrifice? I am thine altar! Wouldst pray? I am thy God!_"
+
+Their lips touched; her kiss seemed to change the cells of his blood to
+flame. For a moment Illusion triumphed; Mara prevailed!... With a shock
+of resolve the dreamer awoke in the night,--under the stars of the
+Chinese sky.
+
+
+Only a mockery of sleep! But the vow had been violated, the sacred
+purpose unfulfilled! Humiliated, penitent, but resolved, the ascetic
+drew from his girdle a keen knife, and with unfaltering hands severed
+his eyelids from his eyes, and flung them from him. "O Thou Perfectly
+Awakened!" he prayed, "thy disciple hath not been overcome save through
+the feebleness of the body; and his vow hath been renewed. Here shall he
+linger, without food or drink, until the moment of its fulfilment." And
+having assumed the hieratic posture,--seated himself with his lower
+limbs folded beneath him, and the palms of his hands upward, the right
+upon the left, the left resting upon the sole of his upturned foot,--he
+resumed his meditation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dawn blushed; day brightened. The sun shortened all the shadows of the
+land, and lengthened them again, and sank at last upon his funeral pyre
+of crimson-burning cloud. Night came and glittered and passed. But Mara
+had tempted in vain. This time the vow had been fulfilled, the holy
+purpose accomplished.
+
+And again the sun arose to fill the World with laughter of light;
+flowers opened their hearts to him; birds sang their morning hymn of
+fire worship; the deep forest trembled with delight; and far upon the
+plain, the eaves of many-storied temples and the peaked caps of the
+city-towers caught aureate glory. Strong in the holiness of his
+accomplished vow, the Indian pilgrim arose in the morning glow. He
+started for amazement as he lifted his hands to his eyes. What! was
+everything a dream? Impossible! Yet now his eyes felt no pain; neither
+were they lidless; not even so much as one of their lashes was lacking.
+What marvel had been wrought? In vain he looked for the severed lids
+that he had flung upon the ground; they had mysteriously vanished. But
+lo! there where he had cast them two wondrous shrubs were growing, with
+dainty leaflets eyelid-shaped, and snowy buds just opening to the East.
+
+Then, by virtue of the supernatural power acquired in that mighty
+meditation, it was given the holy missionary to know the secret of that
+newly created plant,--the subtle virtue of its leaves. And he named it,
+in the language of the nation to whom he brought the Lotos of the Good
+Law, "_TE_"; and he spake to it, saying:--
+
+"Blessed be thou, sweet plant, beneficent, life-giving, formed by the
+spirit of virtuous resolve! Lo! the fame of thee shall yet spread unto
+the ends of the earth; and the perfume of thy life be borne unto the
+uttermost parts by all the winds of heaven! Verily, for all time to come
+men who drink of thy sap shall find such refreshment that weariness may
+not overcome them nor languor seize upon them;--neither shall they know
+the confusion of drowsiness, nor any desire for slumber in the hour of
+duty or of prayer. Blessed be thou!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And still, as a mist of incense, as a smoke of universal sacrifice,
+perpetually ascends to heaven from all the lands of earth the pleasant
+vapor of TE, created for the refreshment of mankind by the power of a
+holy vow, the virtue of a pious atonement.
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+The Tale of the Porcelain-God
+
+
+     _It is written in the _FONG-HO-CHIN-TCH'OUEN_, that whenever the
+     artist Thsang-Kong was in doubt, he would look into the fire of the
+     great oven in which his vases were baking, and question the
+     Guardian-Spirit dwelling in the flame. And the Spirit of the
+     Oven-fires so aided him with his counsels, that the porcelains made
+     by Thsang-Kong were indeed finer and lovelier to look upon than all
+     other porcelains. And they were baked in the years of
+     Khang-hí,--sacredly called Jin Houang-tí._
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD
+
+
+Who first of men discovered the secret of the _Kao-ling_, of the
+_Pe-tun-tse_,--the bones and the flesh, the skeleton and the skin, of
+the beauteous Vase? Who first discovered the virtue of the curd-white
+clay? Who first prepared the ice-pure bricks of _tun_: the
+gathered-hoariness of mountains that have died for age; blanched dust of
+the rocky bones and the stony flesh of sun-seeking Giants that have
+ceased to be? Unto whom was it first given to discover the divine art of
+porcelain?
+
+Unto Pu, once a man, now a god, before whose snowy statues bow the
+myriad populations enrolled in the guilds of the potteries. But the
+place of his birth we know not; perhaps the tradition of it may have
+been effaced from remembrance by that awful war which in our own day
+consumed the lives of twenty millions of the Black-haired Race, and
+obliterated from the face of the world even the wonderful City of
+Porcelain itself,--the City of King-te-chin, that of old shone like a
+jewel of fire in the blue mountain-girdle of Feou-liang.
+
+Before his time indeed the Spirit of the Furnace had being; had issued
+from the Infinite Vitality; had become manifest as an emanation of the
+Supreme Tao. For Hoang-ti, nearly five thousand years ago, taught men to
+make good vessels of baked clay; and in his time all potters had learned
+to know the God of Oven-fires, and turned their wheels to the murmuring
+of prayer. But Hoang-ti had been gathered unto his fathers for thrice
+ten hundred years before that man was born destined by the Master of
+Heaven to become the Porcelain-God.
+
+And his divine ghost, ever hovering above the smoking and the toiling of
+the potteries, still gives power to the thought of the shaper, grace to
+the genius of the designer, luminosity to the touch of the enamellist.
+For by his heaven-taught wisdom was the art of porcelain created; by his
+inspiration were accomplished all the miracles of Thao-yu, maker of the
+_Kia-yu-ki_, and all the marvels made by those who followed after him;--
+
+All the azure porcelains called _You-kouo-thien-tsing_; brilliant as a
+mirror, thin as paper of rice, sonorous as the melodious stone _Khing_,
+and colored, in obedience to the mandate of the Emperor Chi-tsong, "blue
+as the sky is after rain, when viewed through the rifts of the clouds."
+These were, indeed, the first of all porcelains, likewise called
+_Tchai-yao_, which no man, howsoever wicked, could find courage to
+break, for they charmed the eye like jewels of price;--
+
+And the _Jou-yao_, second in rank among all porcelains, sometimes
+mocking the aspect and the sonority of bronze, sometimes blue as summer
+waters, and deluding the sight with mucid appearance of thickly floating
+spawn of fish;--
+
+And the _Kouan-yao_, which are the Porcelains of Magistrates, and third
+in rank of merit among all wondrous porcelains, colored with colors of
+the morning,--skyey blueness, with the rose of a great dawn blushing and
+bursting through it, and long-limbed marsh-birds flying against the
+glow;
+
+Also the _Ko-yao_,--fourth in rank among perfect porcelains,--of fair,
+faint, changing colors, like the body of a living fish, or made in the
+likeness of opal substance, milk mixed with fire; the work of Sing-I,
+elder of the immortal brothers Tchang;
+
+Also the _Ting-yao_,--fifth in rank among all perfect porcelains,--white
+as the mourning garments of a spouse bereaved, and beautiful with a
+trickling as of tears,--the porcelains sung of by the poet Son-tong-po;
+
+Also the porcelains called _Pi-se-yao_, whose colors are called
+"hidden," being alternately invisible and visible, like the tints of
+ice beneath the sun,--the porcelains celebrated by the far-famed singer
+Sin-in;
+
+Also the wondrous _Chu-yao_,--the pallid porcelains that utter a
+mournful cry when smitten,--the porcelains chanted of by the mighty
+chanter, Thou-chao-ling;
+
+Also the porcelains called _Thsin-yao_, white or blue, surface-wrinkled
+as the face of water by the fluttering of many fins.... And ye can see
+the fish!
+
+Also the vases called _Tsi-hong-khi_, red as sunset after a rain; and
+the _T'o-t'ai-khi_, fragile as the wings of the silkworm-moth, lighter
+than the shell of an egg;
+
+Also the _Kia-tsing_,--fair cups pearl-white when empty, yet, by some
+incomprehensible witchcraft of construction, seeming to swarm with
+purple fish the moment they are filled with water;
+
+Also the porcelains called _Yao-pien_, whose tints are transmuted by the
+alchemy of fire; for they enter blood-crimson into the heat, and change
+there to lizard-green, and at last come forth azure as the cheek of the
+sky;
+
+Also the _Ki-tcheou-yao_, which are all violet as a summer's night; and
+the _Hing-yao_ that sparkle with the sparklings of mingled silver and
+snow;
+
+Also the _Sieouen-yao_,--some ruddy as iron in the furnace, some
+diaphanous and ruby-red, some granulated and yellow as the rind of an
+orange, some softly flushed as the skin of a peach;
+
+Also the _Tsoui-khi-yao_, crackled and green as ancient ice is; and the
+_Tchou-fou-yao_, which are the Porcelains of Emperors, with dragons
+wriggling and snarling in gold; and those _yao_ that are pink-ribbed
+and have their angles serrated as the claws of crabs are;
+
+Also the _Ou-ni-yao_, black as the pupil of the eye, and as lustrous;
+and the _Hou-tien-yao_, darkly yellow as the faces of men of India; and
+the _Ou-kong-yao_, whose color is the dead-gold of autumn-leaves;
+
+Also the _Long-kang-yao_, green as the seedling of a pea, but bearing
+also paintings of sun-silvered cloud, and of the Dragons of Heaven;
+
+Also the _Tching-hoa-yao_,--pictured with the amber bloom of grapes and
+the verdure of vine-leaves and the blossoming of poppies, or decorated
+in relief with figures of fighting crickets;
+
+Also the _Khang-hi-nien-ts'ang-yao_, celestial azure sown with star-dust
+of gold; and the _Khien-long-nien-thang-yao_, splendid in sable and
+silver as a fervid night that is flashed with lightnings.
+
+Not indeed the _Long-Ouang-yao_,--painted with the lascivious _Pi-hi_,
+with the obscene _Nan-niu-ssé-sie_, with the shameful _Tchun-hoa_, or
+"Pictures of Spring"; abominations created by command of the wicked
+Emperor Moutsong, though the Spirit of the Furnace hid his face and fled
+away;
+
+But all other vases of startling form and substance, magically
+articulated, and ornamented with figures in relief, in cameo, in
+transparency,--the vases with orifices belled like the cups of flowers,
+or cleft like the bills of birds, or fanged like the jaws of serpents,
+or pink-lipped as the mouth of a girl; the vases flesh-colored and
+purple-veined and dimpled, with ears and with earrings; the vases in
+likeness of mushrooms, of lotos-flowers, of lizards, of horse-footed
+dragons woman-faced; the vases strangely translucid, that simulate the
+white glimmering of grains of prepared rice, that counterfeit the vapory
+lace-work of frost, that imitate the efflorescences of coral;--
+
+Also the statues in porcelain of divinities: the Genius of the Hearth;
+the Long-pinn who are the Twelve Deities of Ink; the blessed Lao-tseu,
+born with silver hair; Kong-fu-tse, grasping the scroll of written
+wisdom; Kouan-in, sweetest Goddess of Mercy, standing snowy-footed upon
+the heart of her golden lily; Chi-nong, the god who taught men how to
+cook; Fo, with long eyes closed in meditation, and lips smiling the
+mysterious smile of Supreme Beatitude; Cheou-lao, god of Longevity,
+bestriding his aërial steed, the white-winged stork; Pou-t'ai, Lord of
+Contentment and of Wealth, obese and dreamy; and that fairest Goddess of
+Talent, from whose beneficent hands eternally streams the iridescent
+rain of pearls.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And though many a secret of that matchless art that Pu bequeathed unto
+men may indeed have been forgotten and lost forever, the story of the
+Porcelain-God is remembered; and I doubt not that any of the aged
+_Jeou-yen-liao-kong_, any one of the old blind men of the great
+potteries, who sit all day grinding colors in the sun, could tell you Pu
+was once a humble Chinese workman, who grew to be a great artist by dint
+of tireless study and patience and by the inspiration of Heaven. So
+famed he became that some deemed him an alchemist, who possessed the
+secret called _White-and-Yellow_, by which stones might be turned into
+gold; and others thought him a magician, having the ghastly power of
+murdering men with horror of nightmare, by hiding charmed effigies of
+them under the tiles of their own roofs; and others, again, averred that
+he was an astrologer who had discovered the mystery of those Five Hing
+which influence all things,--those Powers that move even in the currents
+of the star-drift, in the milky _Tien-ho_, or River of the Sky. Thus, at
+least, the ignorant spoke of him; but even those who stood about the Son
+of Heaven, those whose hearts had been strengthened by the acquisition
+of wisdom, wildly praised the marvels of his handicraft, and asked each
+other if there might be any imaginable form of beauty which Pu could not
+evoke from that beauteous substance so docile to the touch of his
+cunning hand.
+
+And one day it came to pass that Pu sent a priceless gift to the
+Celestial and August: a vase imitating the substance of ore-rock, all
+aflame with pyritic scintillation,--a shape of glittering splendor with
+chameleons sprawling over it; chameleons of porcelain that shifted color
+as often as the beholder changed his position. And the Emperor,
+wondering exceedingly at the splendor of the work, questioned the
+princes and the mandarins concerning him that made it. And the princes
+and the mandarins answered that he was a workman named Pu, and that he
+was without equal among potters, knowing secrets that seemed to have
+been inspired either by gods or by demons. Whereupon the Son of Heaven
+sent his officers to Pu with a noble gift, and summoned him unto his
+presence.
+
+So the humble artisan entered before the Emperor, and having performed
+the supreme prostration,--thrice kneeling, and thrice nine times
+touching the ground with his forehead,--awaited the command of the
+August.
+
+And the Emperor spake to him, saying: "Son, thy gracious gift hath found
+high favor in our sight; and for the charm of that offering we have
+bestowed upon thee a reward of five thousand silver _liang_. But thrice
+that sum shall be awarded thee so soon as thou shalt have fulfilled our
+behest. Hearken, therefore, O matchless artificer! it is now our will
+that thou make for us a vase having the tint and the aspect of living
+flesh, but--mark well our desire!--_of flesh made to creep by the
+utterance of such words as poets utter,--flesh moved by an Idea, flesh
+horripilated by a Thought!_ Obey, and answer not! We have spoken."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now Pu was the most cunning of all the _P'ei-se-kong_,--the men who
+marry colors together; of all the _Hoa-yang-kong_, who draw the shapes
+of vase-decoration; of all the _Hoei-sse-kong_, who paint in enamel; of
+all the _T'ien-thsai-kong_, who brighten color; of all the
+_Chao-lou-kong_, who watch the furnace-fires and the porcelain-ovens.
+But he went away sorrowing from the Palace of the Son of Heaven,
+notwithstanding the gift of five thousand silver _liang_ which had been
+given to him. For he thought to himself: "Surely the mystery of the
+comeliness of flesh, and the mystery of that by which it is moved, are
+the secrets of the Supreme Tao. How shall man lend the aspect of
+sentient life to dead clay? Who save the Infinite can give soul?"
+
+Now Pu had discovered those witchcrafts of color, those surprises of
+grace, that make the art of the ceramist. He had found the secret of the
+_feng-hong_, the wizard flush of the Rose; of the _hoa-hong_, the
+delicious incarnadine; of the mountain-green called _chan-lou_; of the
+pale soft yellow termed _hiao-hoang-yeou_; and of the _hoang-kin_, which
+is the blazing beauty of gold. He had found those eel-tints, those
+serpent-greens, those pansy-violets, those furnace-crimsons, those
+carminates and lilacs, subtle as spirit-flame, which our enamellists of
+the Occident long sought without success to reproduce. But he trembled
+at the task assigned him, as he returned to the toil of his studio,
+saying: "How shall any miserable man render in clay the quivering of
+flesh to an Idea,--the inexplicable horripilation of a Thought? Shall a
+man venture to mock the magic of that Eternal Moulder by whose infinite
+power a million suns are shapen more readily than one small jar might be
+rounded upon my wheel?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Yet the command of the Celestial and August might never be disobeyed;
+and the patient workman strove with all his power to fulfil the Son of
+Heaven's desire. But vainly for days, for weeks, for months, for season
+after season, did he strive; vainly also he prayed unto the gods to aid
+him; vainly he besought the Spirit of the Furnace, crying: "O thou
+Spirit of Fire, hear me, heed me, help me! how shall I,--a miserable
+man, unable to breathe into clay a living soul,--how shall I render in
+this inanimate substance the aspect of flesh made to creep by the
+utterance of a Word, sentient to the horripilation of a Thought?"
+
+For the Spirit of the Furnace made strange answer to him with whispering
+of fire: "_Vast thy faith, weird thy prayer! Has Thought feet, that man
+may perceive the trace of its passing? Canst thou measure me the blast
+of the Wind?_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nevertheless, with purpose unmoved, nine-and-forty times did Pu seek to
+fulfil the Emperor's command; nine-and-forty times he strove to obey the
+behest of the Son of Heaven. Vainly, alas! did he consume his substance;
+vainly did he expend his strength; vainly did he exhaust his knowledge:
+success smiled not upon him; and Evil visited his home, and Poverty sat
+in his dwelling, and Misery shivered at his hearth.
+
+Sometimes, when the hour of trial came, it was found that the colors had
+become strangely transmuted in the firing, or had faded into ashen
+pallor, or had darkened into the fuliginous hue of forest-mould. And Pu,
+beholding these misfortunes, made wail to the Spirit of the Furnace,
+praying: "O thou Spirit of Fire, how shall I render the likeness of
+lustrous flesh, the warm glow of living color, unless thou aid me?"
+
+And the Spirit of the Furnace mysteriously answered him with murmuring
+of fire: "_Canst thou learn the art of that Infinite Enameller who hath
+made beautiful the Arch of Heaven,--whose brush is Light; whose paints
+are the Colors of the Evening?_"
+
+Sometimes, again, even when the tints had not changed, after the pricked
+and labored surface had seemed about to quicken in the heat, to assume
+the vibratility of living skin,--even at the last hour all the labor of
+the workers proved to have been wasted; for the fickle substance
+rebelled against their efforts, producing only crinklings grotesque as
+those upon the rind of a withered fruit, or granulations like those
+upon the skin of a dead bird from which the feathers have been rudely
+plucked. And Pu wept, and cried out unto the Spirit of the Furnace: "O
+thou Spirit of Flame, how shall I be able to imitate the thrill of flesh
+touched by a Thought, unless thou wilt vouchsafe to lend me thine aid?"
+
+And the Spirit of the Furnace mysteriously answered him with muttering
+of fire: "_Canst thou give ghost unto a stone? Canst thou thrill with a
+Thought the entrails of the granite hills?_"
+
+Sometimes it was found that all the work indeed had not failed; for the
+color seemed good, and all faultless the matter of the vase appeared to
+be, having neither crack nor wrinkling nor crinkling; but the pliant
+softness of warm skin did not meet the eye; the flesh-tinted surface
+offered only the harsh aspect and hard glimmer of metal. All their
+exquisite toil to mock the pulpiness of sentient substance had left no
+trace; had been brought to nought by the breath of the furnace. And Pu,
+in his despair, shrieked to the Spirit of the Furnace: "O thou merciless
+divinity! O thou most pitiless god!--thou whom I have worshipped with
+ten thousand sacrifices!--for what fault hast thou abandoned me? for
+what error hast thou forsaken me? How may I, most wretched of men! ever
+render the aspect of flesh made to creep with the utterance of a Word,
+sentient to the titillation of a Thought, if thou wilt not aid me?"
+
+And the Spirit of the Furnace made answer unto him with roaring of
+fire: "_Canst thou divide a Soul? Nay!... Thy life for the life of thy
+work!--thy soul for the soul of thy Vase!_"
+
+And hearing these words Pu arose with a terrible resolve swelling at his
+heart, and made ready for the last and fiftieth time to fashion his work
+for the oven.
+
+One hundred times did he sift the clay and the quartz, the _kao-ling_
+and the _tun_; one hundred times did he purify them in clearest water;
+one hundred times with tireless hands did he knead the creamy paste,
+mingling it at last with colors known only to himself. Then was the vase
+shapen and reshapen, and touched and retouched by the hands of Pu, until
+its blandness seemed to live, until it appeared to quiver and to
+palpitate, as with vitality from within, as with the quiver of rounded
+muscle undulating beneath the integument. For the hues of life were upon
+it and infiltrated throughout its innermost substance, imitating the
+carnation of blood-bright tissue, and the reticulated purple of the
+veins; and over all was laid the envelope of sun-colored _Pe-kia-ho_,
+the lucid and glossy enamel, half diaphanous, even like the substance
+that it counterfeited,--the polished skin of a woman. Never since the
+making of the world had any work comparable to this been wrought by the
+skill of man.
+
+Then Pu bade those who aided him that they should feed the furnace well
+with wood of _tcha_; but he told his resolve unto none. Yet after the
+oven began to glow, and he saw the work of his hands blossoming and
+blushing in the heat, he bowed himself before the Spirit of Flame, and
+murmured: "O thou Spirit and Master of Fire, I know the truth of thy
+words! I know that a Soul may never be divided! Therefore my life for
+the life of my work!--my soul for the soul of my Vase!"
+
+
+And for nine days and for eight nights the furnaces were fed unceasingly
+with wood of _tcha_; for nine days and for eight nights men watched the
+wondrous vase crystallizing into being, rose-lighted by the breath of
+the flame. Now upon the coming of the ninth night, Pu bade all his weary
+comrades retire to, rest, for that the work was well-nigh done, and the
+success assured. "If you find me not here at sunrise," he said, "fear
+not to take forth the vase; for I know that the task will have been
+accomplished according to the command of the August." So they departed.
+
+But in that same ninth night Pu entered the flame, and yielded up his
+ghost in the embrace of the Spirit of the Furnace, giving his life for
+the life of his work,--his soul for the soul of his Vase.
+
+And when the workmen came upon the tenth morning to take forth the
+porcelain marvel, even the bones of Pu had ceased to be; but lo! the
+Vase lived as they looked upon it: seeming to be flesh moved by the
+utterance of a Word, creeping to the titillation of a Thought. And
+whenever tapped by the finger it uttered a voice and a name,--the voice
+of its maker, the name of its creator: PU.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And the son of Heaven, hearing of these things, and viewing the miracle
+of the vase, said unto those about him: "Verily, the Impossible hath
+been wrought by the strength of faith, by the force of obedience! Yet
+never was it our desire that so cruel a sacrifice should have been; we
+sought only to know whether the skill of the matchless artificer came
+from the Divinities or from the Demons,--from heaven or from hell. Now,
+indeed, we discern that Pu hath taken his place among the gods." And the
+Emperor mourned exceedingly for his faithful servant. But he ordained
+that godlike honors should be paid unto the spirit of the marvellous
+artist, and that his memory should be revered forevermore, and that
+fair statues of him should be set up in all the cities of the Celestial
+Empire, and above all the toiling of the potteries, that the multitude
+of workers might unceasingly call upon his name and invoke his
+benediction upon their labors.
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+"_The Soul of the Great Bell._"--The story of Ko-Ngai is one of the
+collection entitled _Pe-Hiao-Tou-Choue_, or "A Hundred Examples of
+Filial Piety." It is very simply told by the Chinese narrator. The
+scholarly French consul, P. Dabry de Thiersant, translated and published
+in 1877 a portion of the book, including the legend of the Bell. His
+translation is enriched with a number of Chinese drawings; and there is
+a quaint little picture of Ko-Ngai leaping into the molten metal.
+
+"_The Story of Ming-Y._"--The singular phantom-tale upon which my work
+is based forms the thirty-fourth story of the famous collection
+_Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan_, and was first translated under the title, "La
+Bachelière du Pays de Chu," by the learned Gustave Schlegel, as an
+introduction to his publication (accompanied by a French version) of
+the curious and obscene _Mai-yu-lang-toú-tchen-hoa-koueï_ (Leyden,
+1877), which itself forms the seventh recital of the same work.
+Schlegel, Julien, Gardner, Birch, D'Entrecolles, Rémusat, Pavie,
+Olyphant, Grisebach, Hervey-Saint-Denys, and others, have given the
+Occidental world translations of eighteen stories from the
+_Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan_; namely, Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 19, 20, 26,
+27, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, and 39. The Chinese work itself dates back to
+the thirteenth century; but as it forms only a collection of the most
+popular tales of that epoch, many of the stories selected by the Chinese
+editor may have had a much more ancient origin. There are forty tales in
+the _Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan_.
+
+"_The Legend of Tchi-Niu._"--My authority for this tale is the following
+legend from the thirty-fourth chapter of the _Kan-ing-p'ien_, or "Book
+of Rewards and Punishments,"--a work attributed to Lao-tseu, which
+contains some four hundred anecdotes and traditions of the most curious
+kind:--
+
+     Tong-yong, who lived under the Han dynasty, was reduced to a state
+     of extreme poverty. Having lost his father, he sold himself in
+     order to obtain ... the wherewithal to bury him and to build him a
+     tomb. The Master of Heaven took pity on him, and sent the Goddess
+     Tchi-Niu to him to become his wife. She wove a piece of silk for
+     him every day until she was able to buy his freedom, after which
+     she gave him a son, and went back to heaven.--_Julien's French
+     Translation_, p. 119.
+
+Lest the reader should suppose, however, that I have drawn wholly upon
+my own imagination for the details of the apparition, the cure, the
+marriage ceremony, etc., I refer him to No. XCVI. of Giles's "Strange
+Stories from a Chinese Studio," entitled, "A Supernatural Wife," in
+which he will find that my narrative is at least conformable to Chinese
+ideas. (This story first appeared in "Harper's Bazaar," and is
+republished here by permission.)
+
+"_The Return of Yen-Tchin-King._"--There may be an involuntary
+anachronism in my version of this legend, which is very pithily
+narrated in the _Kan-ing-p'ien_. No emperor's name is cited by the
+homilist; and the date of the revolt seems to have been left wholly to
+conjecture.--Baber, in his "Memoirs," mentions one of his Mongol archers
+as able to bend a two-hundred-pound bow until the ears met.
+
+"_The Tradition of the Tea-Plant._"--My authority for this bit of
+folklore is the brief statement published by Bretschneider in the
+"Chinese Recorder" for 1871:--
+
+     "A Japanese legend says that about A.D. 519, a Buddhist priest came
+     to China, and, in order to dedicate his soul entirely to God, he
+     made a vow to pass the day and night in an uninterrupted and
+     unbroken meditation. After many years of this continual watching,
+     he was at length so tired that he fell asleep. On awaking the
+     following morning, he was so sorry he had broken his vow that he
+     cut off both his eyelids and threw them upon the ground. Returning
+     to the same place the following day he observed that each eyelid
+     had become a shrub. This was the _tea-shrub_, unknown until that
+     time."
+
+Bretschneider adds that the legend in question seems not to be known to
+the Chinese; yet in view of the fact that Buddhism itself, with all its
+marvellous legends, was received by the Japanese from China, it is
+certainly probable this legend had a Chinese origin,--subsequently
+disguised by Japanese chronology. My Buddhist texts were drawn from
+Fernand Hû's translation of the Dhammapada, and from Leon Feer's
+translation from the Thibetan of the "Sutra in Forty-two Articles." An
+Orientalist who should condescend in a rare leisure-moment to glance at
+my work might also discover that I had borrowed an idea or two from the
+Sanscrit poet, Bhâminî-Vilâsa.
+
+"_The Tale of the Porcelain-God._"--The good Père D'Entrecolles, who
+first gave to Europe the secrets of Chinese porcelain-manufacture, wrote
+one hundred and sixty years ago:--
+
+     "The Emperors of China are, during their lifetime, the most
+     redoubted of divinities; and they believe that nothing should ever
+     stand in the way of their desires....
+
+     "It is related that once upon a time a certain Emperor insisted
+     that some porcelains should be made for him according to a model
+     which he gave. It was answered that the thing was simply
+     impossible; but all such remonstrances only served to excite his
+     desire more and more.... The officers charged by the demigod to
+     supervise and hasten the work treated the workmen with great
+     harshness. The poor wretches spent all their money, took exceeding
+     pains, and received only blows in return. One of them, in a fit of
+     despair, leaped into the blazing furnace, and was instantly burnt
+     to ashes. But the porcelain that was being baked there at the time
+     came out, they say, perfectly beautiful and to the satisfaction of
+     the Emperor.... From that time, the unfortunate workman was
+     regarded as a hero; and his image was made the idol which presides
+     over the manufacture of porcelain."
+
+It appears that D'Entrecolles mistook the statue of Pou't'ai, God of
+Comfort, for that of the real porcelain-deity, as Jacquemart and others
+observe. This error does not, however, destroy the beauty of the myth;
+and there is no good reason to doubt that D'Entrecolles related it as it
+had been told him by some of his Chinese friends at King-te-chin. The
+researches of Stanislas Julien and others have only tended to confirm
+the trustworthiness of the Catholic missionary's statements in other
+respects; and both Julien and Salvétat, in their admirable French
+rendering of the _King-te-chin-thao-lou_, "History of the Porcelains of
+King-te-chin" (a work which has been of the greatest service to me in
+the preparation of my little story), quote from his letters at
+considerable length, and award him the highest praise as a conscientious
+investigator. So far as I have been able to learn, D'Entrecolles remains
+the sole authority for the myth; but his affirmations in regard to other
+matters have withstood the severe tests of time astonishingly well; and
+since the Tai-ping rebellion destroyed King-te-chin and paralyzed its
+noble industry, the value of the French missionary's documents and
+testimony has become widely recognized. In lieu of any other name for
+the hero of the legend, I have been obliged to retain that of Pou, or
+Pu,--only using it without the affix "t'ai,"--so as to distinguish it
+from the deity of comfort and repose.
+
+[Illustration: Decorative motif]
+
+
+
+
+Glossary
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+GLOSSARY
+
+
+ABHIDHARMA.--The metaphysics of Buddhism. Buddhist literature
+is classed into three great divisions, or "baskets"; the highest of
+these is the Abhidharma.... According to a passage in Spence Hardy's
+"Manual of Buddhism," the full comprehension of the Abhidharma is
+possible only for a Buddha to acquire.
+
+CHIH.--"House"; but especially the house of the dead,--a tomb.
+
+CHU-SHA-KIH.--The mandarin-orange.
+
+ÇRAMANA.--An ascetic; one who has subdued his senses. For an
+interesting history of this term, see Burnouf,--"Introduction à
+l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien."
+
+DAMÂRI.--A peculiar chant, of somewhat licentious character,
+most commonly sung during the period of the Indian carnival. For an
+account, at once brief and entertaining, of Hindoo popular songs and
+hymns, see Garcin de Tassy,--"Chants populaires de l'Inde."
+
+DOGS OF FO.--The _Dog of Fo_ is one of those fabulous monsters
+in the sculptural representation of which Chinese art has found its most
+grotesque expression. It is really an exaggerated lion; and the
+symbolical relation of the lion to Buddhism is well known. Statues of
+these mythical animals--sometimes of a grandiose and colossal
+execution--are placed in pairs before the entrances of temples, palaces,
+and tombs, as tokens of honor, and as emblems of divine protection.
+
+FO.--Buddha is called _Fo_, _Fuh_, _Fuh-tu_, _Hwut_, _Fat_, in
+various Chinese dialects. The name is thought to be a corruption of the
+Hindoo _Bodh_, or "Truth," due to the imperfect articulation of the
+Chinese.... It is a curious fact that the Chinese Buddhist liturgy is
+Sanscrit transliterated into Chinese characters, and that the priests
+have lost all recollection of the antique tongue,--repeating the texts
+without the least comprehension of their meaning.
+
+FUH-YIN.--An official holding in Chinese cities a position
+corresponding to that of mayor in the Occident.
+
+FUNG-HOANG.--This allegorical bird, corresponding to the
+Arabian phoenix in some respects, is described as being five cubits
+high, having feathers of five different colors, and singing in five
+modulations.... The female is said to sing in imperfect tones; the male
+in perfect tones. The _fung-hoang_ figures largely in Chinese musical
+myths and legends.
+
+GOPIA (or GOPIS).--Daughters and wives of the cowherds
+of Vrindavana, among whom Krishna was brought up after his incarnation
+as the eighth avatar of Vishnu. Krishna's amours with the shepherdesses,
+or Gopia, form the subject of various celebrated mystical writings,
+especially the _Prem-Ságar_, or "Ocean of Love" (translated by Eastwick
+and by others); and the sensuous _Gita-Govinda_ of the Bengalese lyric
+poet Jayadeva (translated into French prose by Hippolyte Fauche, and
+chastely rendered into English verse by Edwin Arnold in the "Indian Song
+of Songs"). See also Burnouf's partial translation of the _Bhagavata
+Parana_, and Théodore Pavie's "Krichna et sa doctrine." ... The same
+theme has inspired some of the strangest productions of Hindoo art: for
+examples, see plates 65 and 66 of Moor's "Hindoo Pantheon" (edition of
+1861). For accounts of the erotic mysticism connected with the worship
+of Krishna and the Gopia, the reader may also be referred to authorities
+cited in Barth's "Religions of India"; De Tassy's "Chants populaires de
+l'Inde"; and Lamairesse's "Poésies populaires du Sud de l'Inde."
+
+HAO-KHIEOU-TCHOUAN.--This celebrated Chinese novel was
+translated into French by M. Guillard d'Arcy in 1842, and appeared
+under the title, "Hao-Khieou-Tchouan; ou, La Femme Accomplie." The first
+translation of the romance into any European tongue was a Portuguese
+rendering; and the English version of Percy is based upon the Portuguese
+text. The work is rich in poetical quotations.
+
+HEÏ-SONG-CHÉ-TCHOO.--"One day when the Emperor Hiuan-tsong of
+the Thang dynasty," says the _Tao-kia-ping-yu-che_, "was at work in his
+study, a tiny Taoist priest, no bigger than a fly, rose out of the
+inkstand lying upon his table, and said to him: 'I am the Genius of ink;
+my name is Heï-song-ché-tchoo [_Envoy of the Black Fir_]; and I have
+come to tell you that whenever a true sage shall sit down to write, the
+Twelve Divinities of Ink [_Long-pinn_] will appear upon the surface of
+the ink he uses.'" See "L'Encre de Chine," by Maurice Jametel. Paris.
+1882.
+
+HOA-TCHAO.--The "Birthday of a Hundred Flowers" falls upon the
+fifteenth of the second spring-moon.
+
+JADE.--Jade, or nephrite, a variety of jasper,--called by the
+Chinese _yuh_,--has always been highly valued by them as artistic
+material.... In the "Book of Rewards and Punishments," there is a
+curious legend to the effect that Confucius, after the completion of his
+_Hiao-King_ ("Book of Filial Piety"), having addressed himself to
+Heaven, a crimson rainbow fell from the sky, and changed itself at his
+feet into a piece of yellow jade. See Stanislas Julien's translation, p.
+495.
+
+KABIT.--A poetical form much in favor with composers of Hindoo
+religious chants: the _kabit_ always consists of four verses.
+
+KAO-LING.--Literally, "the High Ridge," and originally the name
+of a hilly range which furnished the best quality of clay to the
+porcelain-makers. Subsequently the term applied by long custom to
+designate the material itself became corrupted into the word now
+familiar in all countries,--kaolin. In the language of the Chinese
+potters, the _kaolin_, or clay, was poetically termed the "bones," and
+the _tun_, or quartz, the "flesh" of the porcelain; while the prepared
+bricks of the combined substances were known as _pe-tun-tse_. Both
+substances, the infusible and the fusible, are productions of the same
+geological formation,--decomposed feldspathic rock.
+
+KASÍ (_or_ VARANASI).--Ancient name of Benares, the "Sacred City,"
+believed to have been founded by the gods. It is also called "The
+Lotos of the World." Barth terms it "the Jerusalem of all the sects
+both of ancient and modern India." It still boasts two thousand
+shrines, and half a million images of divinities. See also Sherring's
+"Sacred City of the Hindoos."
+
+KIANG-KOU-JIN.--Literally, the "tell-old-story-men." For a brief account
+of Chinese professional story-tellers, the reader may consult Schlegel's
+entertaining introduction to the _Mai-yu-lang-toú-tchen-hoa-koueï_.
+
+KIN.--The most perfect of Chinese musical instruments, also
+called "the Scholar's Lute." The word _kin_ also means "to prohibit";
+and this name is said to have been given to the instrument because
+music, according to Chinese belief, "_restrains evil passions, and
+corrects the human heart_." See Williams's "Middle Kingdom."
+
+KOUEI.--Kouei, musician to the Emperor Yao, must have held his
+office between 2357 and 2277 B.C. The extract selected from one of his
+songs, which I have given at the beginning of the "Story of Ming-Y," is
+therefore more than four thousand years old. The same chant contains
+another remarkable fancy, evidencing Chinese faith in musical magic:--
+
+    "When I smite my [_musical_] stone,--
+    Be it gently, be it strongly,--
+    Then do the fiercest beasts of prey leap high for joy.
+    And the chiefs among the public officials do agree among themselves."
+
+KWANG-CHAU-FU.--Literally, "The Broad City,"--the name of
+Canton. It is also called "The City of Genii."
+
+LÍ.--A measure of distance. The length of the _li_ has varied
+considerably in ancient and in modern times. The present is given by
+Williams as ten _li_ to a league.
+
+LI-SAO.--"The Dissipation of Grief," one of the most celebrated
+Chinese poems of the classic period. It is said to have been written
+about 314 B.C., by Kiu-ping-youen, minister to the King of Tsou. Finding
+himself the victim of a base court-intrigue, Kiu-ping wrote the _Li-Sao_
+as a vindication of his character, and as a rebuke to the malice of his
+enemies, after which he committed suicide by drowning.... A fine French
+translation of the _Li-Sao_ has been made by the Marquis Hervey de
+Saint-Denys (Paris, 1870).
+
+LI-SHU.--The second of the six styles of Chinese writing, for
+an account of which see Williams's "Middle Kingdom." ... According to
+various Taoist legends, the decrees of Heaven are recorded in the
+"Seal-character," the oldest of all; and marks upon the bodies of
+persons killed by lightning have been interpreted as judgments written
+in it. The following extraordinary tale from the _Kan-ing-p'ien_ affords
+a good example of the superstition in question:--
+
+     Tchang-tchun was Minister of State under the reign of Hoeï-tsong,
+     of the Song dynasty. He occupied himself wholly in weaving
+     perfidious plots. He died in exile at Mo-tcheou. Sometime after,
+     while the Emperor was hunting, there fell a heavy rain, which
+     obliged him to seek shelter in a poor man's hut. The thunder rolled
+     with violence; and the lightning killed a man, a woman, and a
+     little boy. On the backs of the man and woman were found red
+     characters, which could not be deciphered; but on the back of the
+     little boy the following six words could be read, written in
+     Tchouen (_antique_) characters:
+     TSÉ-TCH'IN-TCHANG-TCHUN-HEOU-CHIN,--which mean: "Child of the issue
+     of Tchang-tchun, who was a rebellious subject."--_Le Livre des
+     Récompenses et des Peines, traduit par Stanislas Julien_, p. 446.
+
+PAGAL.--The ankle-ring commonly worn by Hindoo women; it is
+also called _nupur_. It is hollow, and contains loose bits of metal,
+which tinkle when the foot is moved.
+
+SAN-HIEN.--A three-stringed Chinese guitar. Its belly is
+usually covered with snake-skin.
+
+SIU-FAN-TI.--Literally, "the Sweeping of the Tombs,"--the day
+of the general worship of ancestors; the Chinese "All-Souls'." It falls
+in the early part of April, the period called _tsing-ming_.
+
+TA-CHUNG SZ'.--Literally, "Temple of the Bell." The building at
+Pekin so named covers probably the largest suspended bell in the world,
+cast in the reign of Yong-lo, about 1406 A.D., and weighing upwards of
+120,000 pounds.
+
+TAO.--The infinite being, or Universal Life, whence all forms
+proceed: Literally, "the Way," in the sense of the First Cause.
+Lao-tseu uses the term in other ways; but that primal and most important
+philosophical sense which he gave to it is well explained in the
+celebrated Chapter XXV. of the _Tao-te-king_.... The difference between
+the great Chinese thinker's conception of the First Cause--the
+Unknowable,--and the theories of other famous metaphysicians, Oriental
+and Occidental, is set forth with some definiteness in Stanislas
+Julien's introduction to the _Tao-te-king_, pp. x-xv. ("Le Livre de la
+Voie et de la Vertu." Paris, 1842.)
+
+THANG.--The Dynasty of Thang, which flourished between 620 and
+907 A.D., encouraged literature and art, and gave to China its most
+brilliant period. The three poets of the Thang dynasty mentioned in the
+second story flourished between 779 and 852 A.D.
+
+"THREE COUNCILLORS."--Six stars of the Great-Bear constellation
+([Greek: ik--lm--nx]), as apparently arranged in pairs, are thus called
+by the Chinese astrologers and mythologists. The three couples are
+further distinguished as the Superior Councillor, Middle Councillor, and
+Inferior Councillor; and, together with the Genius of the Northern
+Heaven, form a celestial tribunal, presiding over the duration of human
+life, and deciding the course of mortal destiny. (Note by Stanislas
+Julien in "Le Livre des Récompenses et des Peines.")
+
+TIEN-HIA.--Literally, "Under-Heaven," or "Beneath-the-Sky,"--one
+of the most ancient of those many names given by the Chinese to China.
+The name "China" itself is never applied by the Black-haired Race to
+their own country, and is supposed to have had its origin in the fame of
+the first _Tsin_ dynasty, whose founder, Tsin Chí-Houang-tí, built the
+Great, or "Myriad-Mile," Wall, twenty-two and a half degrees of latitude
+in length ... See Williams regarding occurrence of the name "China" in
+Sanscrit literature.
+
+TSIEN.--The well-known Chinese copper coin, with a square hole
+in the middle for stringing, is thus named. According to quality of
+metal it takes from 900 to 1,800 _tsien_ to make one silver dollar.
+
+TSING-JIN.--"Men of Tsing." From very ancient times the Chinese
+have been wont to call themselves by the names of their famous
+dynasties,--_Han-jin_, "the men of Han"; _Thang-jin_, "the men of
+Thang," etc. _Ta Tsing Kwoh_ ("Great Pure Kingdom") is the name given by
+the present dynasty to China,--according to which the people might call
+themselves _Tsing-jin_, or "men of Tsing." Williams, however, remarks
+that they will not yet accept the appellation.
+
+VERSES (CHINESE).--The verses preceding "The Legend of
+Tchi-Niu" afford some remarkable examples of Chinese onomatopoeia.
+They occur in the sixth strophe of _Miên-miên_, which is the third chant
+of the first section of _Ta-ya_, the Third Book of the _Chi-King_.(See
+G. Pauthier's French version.) Dr. Legge translates the strophe thus:--
+
+     ... Crowds brought the earth in baskets; they threw it with shouts
+     into the frames; they beat it with responsive blows; they pared the
+     walls repeatedly till they sounded strong.--_Sacred Books of the
+     East_; Vol. III., _The She-King_, p. 384.
+
+Pauthier translates the verses somewhat differently; preserving the
+onomatopoeia in three of the lines. _Hoûng-hoûng_ are the sounds heard
+in the timber-yards where the wood is being measured; from the workshops
+of the builders respond the sounds of _tông-tông_; and the solid walls,
+when fully finished off, give out the sound of _pîng-pîng_.
+
+YAO.--"Porcelain." The reader who desires detailed information
+respecting the technology, history, or legends of Chinese
+porcelain-manufacture should consult Stanislas Julien's admirable
+"Histoire de la Porcelaine Chinoise" (Paris, 1856). With some trifling
+exceptions, the names of the various porcelains cited in my "Tale of
+the Porcelain-God" were selected from Julien's work. Though oddly
+musical and otherwise attractive in Chinese, these names lose interest
+by translation. The majority of them merely refer to centres of
+manufacture or famous potteries: _Chou-yao_, "porcelains of Chou";
+_Hong-tcheou-yao_, "porcelains of Hong-tcheou"; _Jou-yao_, "porcelains
+of Jou-tcheou"; _Ting-yao_, "porcelains of Ting-tcheou"; _Ko-yao_,"
+porcelains of the Elder Brother [Thsang]"; _Khang-hi-nien-t'sang-yao_,
+"porcelains of Thsang made in the reign of Khang-hi." Some porcelains
+were distinguished by the names of dynasties, or the titles of civic
+office holders; such as the celebrated _Tch'aï-yao_, "the porcelains of
+Tch'aï" (which was the name of the family of the Emperor Chi-tsong); and
+the _Kouan-yao_, or "Porcelains of Magistrates." Much more rarely the
+names refer directly to the material or artistic peculiarity of
+porcelains,--as _Ou-ni-yao_, the "black-paste porcelains," or
+_Pi-se-yao_, the "porcelains of hidden color." The word _khi_, sometimes
+substituted for _yao_ in these compound names, means "vases"; as
+_Jou-khi_, "vases of Jou-tcheou"; _Kouan-khi_, "vases for Magistrates."
+
+[Illustration: Chinese calligraphy]
+
+
+
+
+
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