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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16261-8.txt b/16261-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6fadef --- /dev/null +++ b/16261-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2827 @@ +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] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CHINESE GHOSTS *** + +***** This file should be named 16261-8.txt or 16261-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/6/16261/ + +Produced by Bethanne M. 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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 + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<p><a name="Page_0" id="Page_0"></a></p><p><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></p> +<h1>SOME CHINESE GHOSTS</h1> + + + +<p class="center">BY LAFCADIO HEARN</p> + + + +<p class="center gap"><a name="Copyright_1887_by" id="Copyright_1887_by"></a><i>Copyright</i>, 1887, by +ROBERTS BROTHERS</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<p class="center bigger"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a><a name="To_my_friend" id="To_my_friend"></a><b>To my friend</b></p> + +<p class="center bigger">HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL</p> + +<p class="center big"><i>THE MUSICIAN</i></p> + +<p class="center gap" style="line-height:2.0;"> +WHO, SPEAKING THE SPEECH OF MELODY UNTO THE<br /> +CHILDREN OF TIEN-HIA,—<br /> +UNTO THE WANDERING TSING-JIN, WHOSE SKINS<br /> +HAVE THE COLOR OF GOLD,—<br /> +MOVED THEM TO MAKE STRANGE SOUNDS UPON THE<br /> +SERPENT-BELLIED SAN-HIEN;<br /> +PERSUADED THEM TO PLAY FOR ME UPON THE<br /> +SHRIEKING YA-HIEN;<br /> +PREVAILED ON THEM TO SING ME A SONG OF THEIR<br /> +NATIVE LAND,—<br /> +THE SONG OF MOHLÍ-HWA,<br /> +THE SONG OF THE JASMINE-FLOWER<br /> +</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 156px;"> +<img src="images/006.png" width="156" height="156" alt="Line drawing of a man's head" title="Line drawing of a man's head" /> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a><i>PREFACE</i></h2> + + +<p>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 <i>weird beauty</i>; 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 <i>spring which is peculiarly apt to lose its +elasticity by being too much pressed upon</i>."</p> + +<p>Those desirous to familiarize themselves with Chinese literature as a +whole have had the way made smooth for them <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>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 +<i>hwa-wang</i>, a black lily, a phosphoric rose or two,—as souvenirs of his +curious voyage.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right;"> +L.H.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">New Orleans</span>, March 15, 1886. +</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a><i>CONTENTS</i></h2> + + +<ul> + +<li class="contents"><a href="#The_Soul_of_the_Great_Bell">The Soul Of The Great Bell</a></li> +<li class="contents"><a href="#The_Story_of_Ming-Y">The Story Of Ming-Y</a></li> +<li class="contents"><a href="#The_Legend_of_Tchi-Niu">The Legend Of Tchi-Niu</a></li> +<li class="contents"><a href="#The_Return_of_Yen-Tchin-King">The Return Of Yen-Tchin-King</a></li> +<li class="contents"><a href="#The_Tradition_of_the_Tea-Plant">The Tradition Of The Tea-Plant</a></li> +<li class="contents"><a href="#The_Tale_of_the_Porcelain-God">The Tale Of The Porcelain-God</a></li> +<li class="contents gap"><a href="#NOTES">Notes</a></li> +<li class="contents"><a href="#Glossary">Glossary</a></li> +</ul> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/010.png" width="150" height="105" alt="Decorative motif" title="Decorative motif" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 137px; margin-top:6em;"> +<a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a> +<img src="images/011.png" width="137" height="140" alt="Line drawing of a head" title="Line drawing of a head" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a><a name="The_Soul_of_the_Great_Bell" +id="The_Soul_of_the_Great_Bell"></a><b>The Soul of the Great Bell</b></h2> + + + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="gap"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a><i>She hath spoken, and her words still resound in his ears.</i></p> + +<p style="text-align:right"><span class="smcap">Hao-Khieou-Tchouan</span>: c. ix.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<p class="big center gap"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL</p> + + +<p>The water-clock marks the hour in the <i>Ta-chung sz'</i>,—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 +<i>Fa-hwa-King</i>, from the chapters of the holy <i>Ling-yen-King</i>! Hear the +great bell responding!—how mighty her voice, though +tongueless!—<i>KO-NGAI!</i> All the little dragons on the high-tilted eaves +of the green roofs shiver to the tips of their gilded tails under that +deep <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>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. <i>KO-NGAI!</i>—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! <i>KO-NGAI!</i>—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, "<i>Hiai!</i>" Even so +the great bell hath sounded every day for <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>well-nigh five hundred +years,—<i>Ko-Ngai</i>: first with stupendous clang, then with immeasurable +moan of gold, then with silver murmuring of "<i>Hiai!</i>" 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 <i>Ko-Ngai</i> and <i>Hiai</i>!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>Now, this is the story of the great bell in the Ta-chung sz', as the +same is related in the <i>Pe-Hiao-Tou-Choue</i>, written by the learned +Yu-Pao-Tchen, of the City of Kwang-tchau-fu.</p> + +<p>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 <i>li</i>. 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 <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>in the centre of the +imperial capital, to sound through all the many-colored ways of the City +of Pe-king.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But when the metal had been cast, and the earthen mould separated from +<a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>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:—</p> + +<p><i>"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!"</i></p> + + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>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 <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>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 <i>Hwang-tao</i>, or Yellow Road,—and +consulted the table of the Five <i>Hin</i>, 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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>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 <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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,—"<i>For thy sake, O my +Father!</i>" 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.</p> + +<p>Then the father of Ko-Ngai, wild <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>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.</p> + + + + + +<p class="gap">But in spite of all these things, the command of the Celestial and +August <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>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 be<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>yond the distance of one hundred <i>li</i>, 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!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>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, "<i>Hiai!</i>" 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 "<i>Hiai!</i>" +then, indeed, all the Chinese mothers in all the many-colored ways of +Pe-king whisper to their little ones: "<i>Listen! that is Ko-Ngai crying +for her shoe! That is Ko-Ngai calling for her shoe!</i>"</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 102px;"> +<img src="images/028.png" width="102" height="165" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a><a name="The_Story_of_Ming-Y" id="The_Story_of_Ming-Y"></a><b>The Story of Ming-Y</b></h2> + + + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a><span class="smcap">The ancient Words of Kouei—Master of Musicians in the Courts +of the Emperor Yao</span>:—</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>When ye make to resound the stone melodious, the Ming-Khieou,—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>When ye touch the lyre that is called Kin, or the guitar that is called Ssé,—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Accompanying their sound with song,—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Then do the grandfather and the father return;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Then do the ghosts of the ancestors come to hear.</i><br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + + +<p class="big center gap"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>THE STORY OF MING-Y</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Sang the Poet Tching-Kou: "Surely the Peach-Flowers blossom over +the tomb of Sië-Thao."</i></p></div> + + +<p>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,—<i>Sië-Thao</i>. But, saving the whispering of +her name, what the trees say cannot be understood; and they alone +remember the <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>years of Sië-Thao. Something about her you might, +nevertheless, learn from any of those <i>Kiang-kou-jin</i>,—those famous +Chinese story-tellers, who nightly narrate to listening crowds, in +consideration of a few <i>tsien</i>, 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:—</p> + +<p>Five hundred years ago, in the reign of the Emperor Houng-Wou, whose +dynasty was <i>Ming</i>, 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 beau<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>tiful 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>son, immediately engaged Ming-Y as a private tutor for his +family.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><i>"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."</i></p> + +<p>If Ming-Y did not heed this counsel in after days, it was only because +of <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>his youth and the thoughtlessness of a naturally joyous heart.</p> + +<p>And he departed to abide in the house of Lord Tchang, while the autumn +passed, and the winter also.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>When the time of the second moon of spring was drawing near, and that +happy day which the Chinese call <i>Hoa-tchao</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>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 <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>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 <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>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 +<a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>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 <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>broad +steps to receive him, and said as he ascended:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>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 <i>chu-sha-kih</i>; her robes of +pale silk took shifting tints when she moved, as vapors change hue with +the changing of the light.</p> + +<p>"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<a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a> Tchang is my family also, I cannot but consider the +teacher of his children as one of my own kin."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"The name of my poor family," responded the comely lady, "is <i>Ping</i>,—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."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>So Ming-Y remained, rejoicing se<a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>cretly 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 <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>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 <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>return his gaze of +passionate admiration with affectionate interest.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The serving-maid, obedient to the summons of a little silver gong, +brought <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>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 <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>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: <i>Po-nien-jou-chi, i-tien-jou-ki,</i>—'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!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p><p><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>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."</p> + +<p>And she presented him with an exquisite and curious little thing,—a +<a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>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 <i>tsiang</i>, 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 <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>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."<a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a> 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."</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>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."</p> + +<p>She brushed the bright drops away, and brought wine and music and the +melodious <i>kin</i> of seven silken strings, and would not suffer Ming-Y to +speak for one moment of the coming separa<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>tion. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>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?"</p> + +<p>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; <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>and at last, partly through fear +of his parent, and partly through fear of the law which ordains that +"<i>the son refusing to obey his father shall be punished with one hundred +blows of the bamboo,</i>" Ming-Y faltered out the history of his love.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 as<a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>tonishment 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>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!</p> + +<p><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>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:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Surely the peach-flowers blossom over</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>the tomb of SIË-THAO."</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"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 <i>Moun</i> and <i>hiao</i>, placed together, +form the character<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a> '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, '<i>Pure object of art belonging to Kao, of the +city of Pho-hai</i>'? 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 <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>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."</p> + +<p>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, "<i>Sië-Thao</i>."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 330px;"> +<img src="images/070.png" width="330" height="96" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + + + +<h2><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a><a name="The_Legend_of_Tchi-Niu" id="The_Legend_of_Tchi-Niu"></a><b>The Legend of Tchi-Niu</b></h2> + + + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a><span class="smcap">A sound of gongs, a sound of song,—the song of the builders +building the dwellings of the dead</span>:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Khiû tchî yîng-yîng.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Toû tchî hoûng-hoûng.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Tchŏ tchî tông-tông.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Siŏ liú pîng-pîng.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +</div> + +<p class="big center gap"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a> +THE LEGEND OF TCHI-NIU.</p> + + +<p>In the quaint commentary accompanying the text of that holy book of +Lao-tseu called <i>Kan-ing-p'ien</i> 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 <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>of +the legend was Tong-yong, and that he lived in the years of the great +dynasty of Han, some twenty centuries ago.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>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 <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>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 <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>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 <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>demon or dragon +might ever disturb, the beautiful <i>chih</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>Thrice had spring perfumed the breast of the land with flowers, and +thrice had been celebrated that festival of the dead which is called +<i>Siu-fan-ti</i>, 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 <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>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."</p> + +<p>Her clear voice had tones melodious as a bird's song; but in her gaze +there <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>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>I will provide.</i>" 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 <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>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 <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>with charming paper +devices,—with dainty decorations created out of nothing by that pretty +jugglery of which woman only knows the secret.</p> + +<p>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 +<a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>The seasons passed, and Tong never knew want, so well did his beautiful +wife fulfil her promise,—"<i>I will provide</i>"; 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>li-shu</i>. And Tong, looking at it, cried +out and leaped in his joy, for it was the certificate of his +manumission. Tchi had <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>secretly purchased her husband's freedom with the +price of her wondrous silks!</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Then Tong, beside himself for gratefulness, would have prostrated +himself in worship before her, but that she would not suffer it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>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!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>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.</p> + +<p>All suddenly Tchi arose without <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>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 <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>voice came to him with all the +tenderness of other hours, saying: "<i>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: +<span class="smcap">I am the Goddess Tchi-Niu</span>.</i>"</p> + +<p>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 +<a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;"> +<img src="images/097.png" width="429" height="105" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + + + +<h2><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a> +<a name="The_Return_of_Yen-Tchin-King" id="The_Return_of_Yen-Tchin-King"></a><b>The Return of Yen-Tchin-King</b></h2> + + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><p><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a></p> +<span class="i0"><i>Before me ran, as a herald runneth, the Leader of the Moon</i>;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And the Spirit of the Wind followed after me,—quickening his flight.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p style="text-align:right;"><span class="smcap">Li-Sao</span>.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="big center gap"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>THE RETURN OF YEN-TCHIN-KING</p> + + +<p>In the thirty-eighth chapter of the holy book, <i>Kan-ing-p'ien</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a> 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 <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>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, +<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>and kissing it, he made ready to read, while the multitude became +silent. Then, in a strong, clear voice he began:—</p> + +<p>"<i>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.</i>"</p> + +<p>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,—"<i>Hoo! +hoo-oo-oo-oo!</i>"—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:—</p> + +<p>"<i>Knowest thou not, O most rash and foolish of men, that thou leadest +the<a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a> 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!</i></p> + +<p>"<i>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.</i>"</p><p><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a></p> + +<p>"<i>Hoo! hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!</i>" roared the people, gathering fury. "<i>Hoo! +hoo-oo-oo-oo!</i>"—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 <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>gongs, +until nothing save the fluttering of the Dragon-banner could be heard. +Then spake Hi-lié, with an evil smile,—</p> + +<p>"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 <i>luh-kao</i>, the triple prostration,—into that +fire thou shalt be thrown."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Then Hi-lié leaped to his feet in amazement, and shouted to his men; and +they snatched Tchin-King from <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>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!"</p> + +<p>But Tchin-King, looking upon him unswervingly, replied in a voice clear +as the voice of a great bell,—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And looking, the Emperor perceived that the Golden Tigers upon the wall +<a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>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 <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>promised +allegiance; and once more was the law of righteousness restored. But +Tchin-King had been dead for many summers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;"> +<img src="images/115.png" width="375" height="121" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a> +<a name="The_Tradition_of_the_Tea-Plant" id="The_Tradition_of_the_Tea-Plant"></a><b>The Tradition of the Tea-Plant</b></h2> + + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a><span class="smcap">Sang a Chinese heart fourteen hundred years ago</span>:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>There is Somebody of whom I am thinking.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Far away there is Somebody of whom I am thinking.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>A hundred leagues of mountains lie between us:—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Yet the same Moon shines upon us, and the passing Wind breathes upon us both.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +</div> + +<p class="big center gap"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a> +THE TRADITION OF THE TEA-PLANT</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Good is the continence of the eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good is the continence of the ear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good is the continence of the nostrils;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good is the continence of the tongue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good is the continence of the body;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good is the continence of speech;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good is all...."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>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 <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>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 <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>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:—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 +<a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>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:—</p> + +<p>"<i>O the Jewel in the Lotos!</i></p> + +<p>"Even as the tortoise withdraweth its extremities into its shell, let +me, O Blessed One, withdraw my senses wholly into meditation!</p> + +<p>"<i>O the Jewel in the Lotos!</i></p> + +<p>"For even as rain penetrateth the broken roof of a dwelling long +uninhabited, so may passion enter the soul uninhabited by meditation.</p> + +<p>"<i>O the Jewel in the Lotos!</i></p> + +<p>"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 +<a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>world, O Master, even as the wild bird rises from its marsh to follow +the pathway of the Sun!</p> + +<p>"<i>O the Jewel in the Lotos!</i></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"<i>O the Jewel in the Lotos!</i></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"<i>O the Jewel in the Lotos</i>!"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>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. <i>O the jewel in her ear!</i> 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."<a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a> +And there came to his mind also the Three Hundred and Forty-Fifth verse +of the same blessed book, regarding fetters:</p> + +<p>"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 <i>concern for the jewelled earrings of women</i>."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a><i>O the jewel in her ear!</i> 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 +<i>Chapter of Impermanency</i>:</p> + +<p>"Gazing upon the heavens and upon the earth ye must say, <i>These are not +permanent</i>. Gazing upon the mountains and the rivers, ye must say, +<i>These<a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a> are not permanent</i>. Gazing upon the forms and upon the faces +of exterior beings, and beholding their growth and their development, ye +must say, <i>These are not permanent</i>."</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>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":—</p> + +<p>"<i>All forms are only temporary.</i>" When this great truth is fully +comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This is the +Way of Purification.</p> + +<p>"<i>All forms are subject unto pain.</i>" When this great truth is fully +comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This is the +Way of Purification.</p> + +<p>"<i>All forms are without substantial reality.</i>" When this great truth is +fully <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>comprehended by any one, then is he delivered from all pain. This +is the way of ...</p> + + +<p class="gap"><i>Her</i> 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 +<a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>voice than in the hollow <i>pagals</i> that made a moonlight about her +ankles! But her smile!—the little teeth like flower-stamens in the +perfumed blossom of her mouth!</p> + + + +<p class="gap">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 pre<a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>vail against +him!" And he recited the eternal verses of the Chapter of Wakefulness:—</p> + +<p>"<i>Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!</i> +Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the Law.</p> + +<p>"<i>Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!</i> +Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the +Community.</p> + +<p>"<i>Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!</i> +Unceasingly, by day and night, their thoughts are fixed upon the Body.</p> + +<p>"<i>Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!</i> +Unceasingly, by day and night, their minds know the sweetness of perfect +peace.</p> + +<p>"<i>Completely and eternally awake are the disciples of Gotama!</i> +Unceasingly, <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>by day and night, their minds enjoy the deep peace of +meditation."</p> + + + +<p class="gap">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 <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>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 <i>kabit</i> and <i>damâri</i>. But whither, +whither? Out of the city into the sun they passed, between <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>avenues of +banyan, down colonnades of palm. But whither, whither?</p> + +<p>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 fren<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>zied 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>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....</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>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.</p> + +<p>The sound of a tread, light as a <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>whisper, approached through the heavy +stillness, with a drowsy tinkling of <i>pagals</i>, a tintinnabulation of +anklets. All suddenly he felt glide about his neck the tepid smoothness +of a woman's arm. <i>She, she!</i> 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. "<i>Heart's-thief,</i>" her flower-lips +whispered,—"<i>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!</i>"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>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.</p> + + + +<p class="gap">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 <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 lan<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>guage of the nation to whom he brought the Lotos of the Good +Law, "<i>TE</i>"; and he spake to it, saying:—</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 103px;"> +<img src="images/143.png" width="103" height="294" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a> +<a name="The_Tale_of_the_Porcelain-God" id="The_Tale_of_the_Porcelain-God"></a><b>The Tale of the Porcelain-God</b></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a> +<i>It is written in the </i><span class="smcap">Fong-ho-chin-tch'ouen</span><i>, 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.</i></p> +</div> + + +<p class="big center gap"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD</p> + + +<p>Who first of men discovered the secret of the <i>Kao-ling</i>, of the +<i>Pe-tun-tse</i>,—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 <i>tun</i>: 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?</p> + +<p>Unto Pu, once a man, now a god, before whose snowy statues bow the +<a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>Kia-yu-ki</i>, and all the marvels made by those who followed after him;—</p> + +<p>All the azure porcelains called <i>You-kouo-thien-tsing</i>; brilliant as a +mirror, <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>thin as paper of rice, sonorous as the melodious stone <i>Khing</i>, +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 +<i>Tchai-yao</i>, which no man, howsoever wicked, could find courage to +break, for they charmed the eye like jewels of price;—</p> + +<p>And the <i>Jou-yao</i>, 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;—</p> + +<p>And the <i>Kouan-yao</i>, which are the Porcelains of Magistrates, and third +in rank of merit among all wondrous <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>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;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Ko-yao</i>,—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;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Ting-yao</i>,—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;</p> + +<p>Also the porcelains called <i>Pi-se-yao</i>, whose colors are called +"hidden," being alternately invisible and visible, like <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>the tints of +ice beneath the sun,—the porcelains celebrated by the far-famed singer +Sin-in;</p> + +<p>Also the wondrous <i>Chu-yao</i>,—the pallid porcelains that utter a +mournful cry when smitten,—the porcelains chanted of by the mighty +chanter, Thou-chao-ling;</p> + +<p>Also the porcelains called <i>Thsin-yao</i>, white or blue, surface-wrinkled +as the face of water by the fluttering of many fins.... And ye can see +the fish!</p> + +<p>Also the vases called <i>Tsi-hong-khi</i>, red as sunset after a rain; and +the <i>T'o-t'ai-khi</i>, fragile as the wings of the silkworm-moth, lighter +than the shell of an egg;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Kia-tsing</i>,—fair cups pearl-white when empty, yet, by some +incomprehensible witchcraft of construction, <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>seeming to swarm with +purple fish the moment they are filled with water;</p> + +<p>Also the porcelains called <i>Yao-pien</i>, 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;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Ki-tcheou-yao</i>, which are all violet as a summer's night; and +the <i>Hing-yao</i> that sparkle with the sparklings of mingled silver and +snow;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Sieouen-yao</i>,—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;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Tsoui-khi-yao</i>, crackled and green as ancient ice is; and the +<i>Tchou-fou-yao</i>, which are the Porcelains of Emperors, with dragons +wriggling and <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>snarling in gold; and those <i>yao</i> that are pink-ribbed +and have their angles serrated as the claws of crabs are;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Ou-ni-yao</i>, black as the pupil of the eye, and as lustrous; +and the <i>Hou-tien-yao</i>, darkly yellow as the faces of men of India; and +the <i>Ou-kong-yao</i>, whose color is the dead-gold of autumn-leaves;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Long-kang-yao</i>, green as the seedling of a pea, but bearing +also paintings of sun-silvered cloud, and of the Dragons of Heaven;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Tching-hoa-yao</i>,—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;</p> + +<p>Also the <i>Khang-hi-nien-ts'ang-yao</i>, celestial azure sown with star-dust +of gold; and the <i>Khien-long-nien-thang-yao</i>, <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>splendid in sable and +silver as a fervid night that is flashed with lightnings.</p> + +<p>Not indeed the <i>Long-Ouang-yao</i>,—painted with the lascivious <i>Pi-hi</i>, +with the obscene <i>Nan-niu-ssé-sie</i>, with the shameful <i>Tchun-hoa</i>, 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;</p> + +<p>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 mush<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>rooms, 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;—</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>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 +<i>Jeou-yen-liao-kong</i>, 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 <i>White-and-Yellow</i>, 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 <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>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 <i>Tien-ho</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>And one day it came to pass that Pu sent a priceless gift to the +Celestial and August: a vase imitating the <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>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.</p> + +<p>So the humble artisan entered before the Emperor, and having performed +the supreme prostration,—thrice kneel<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>ing, and thrice nine times +touching the ground with his forehead,—awaited the command of the +August.</p> + +<p>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 <i>liang</i>. 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!—<i>of flesh made to creep by the +utterance of such words as poets utter,—flesh moved by an Idea, flesh +horripilated by a Thought!</i> Obey, and answer not! We have spoken."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>Now Pu was the most cunning of all the <i>P'ei-se-kong</i>,—the men who +marry colors together; of all the <i>Hoa-yang-kong</i>, who draw the shapes +of vase-decoration; of all the <i>Hoei-sse-kong,</i> who paint in enamel; of +all the <i>T'ien-thsai-kong</i>, who brighten color; of all the +<i>Chao-lou-kong</i>, 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 <i>liang</i> 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?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>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 +<i>feng-hong</i>, the wizard flush of the Rose; of the <i>hoa-hong</i>, the +delicious incarnadine; of the mountain-green called <i>chan-lou</i>; of the +pale soft yellow termed <i>hiao-hoang-yeou</i>; and of the <i>hoang-kin</i>, 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?<a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a> 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?"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>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?"</p> + +<p>For the Spirit of the Furnace made strange answer to him with whispering +<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>of fire: "<i>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?</i>"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a> 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?"</p> + +<p>And the Spirit of the Furnace mysteriously answered him with murmuring +of fire: "<i>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?</i>"</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></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?"</p> + +<p>And the Spirit of the Furnace mysteriously answered him with muttering +of fire: "<i>Canst thou give ghost unto a stone? Canst thou thrill with a +Thought the entrails of the granite hills?</i>"</p> + +<p>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 +soft<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>ness 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?"</p> + +<p>And the Spirit of the Furnace made <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>answer unto him with roaring of +fire: "<i>Canst thou divide a Soul? Nay!... Thy life for the life of thy +work!—thy soul for the soul of thy Vase!</i>"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One hundred times did he sift the clay and the quartz, the <i>kao-ling</i> +and the <i>tun</i>; 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, <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>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 <i>Pe-kia-ho</i>, +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.</p> + +<p>Then Pu bade those who aided him that they should feed the furnace well +with wood of <i>tcha</i>; 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 <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>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!"</p> + + +<p class="gap">And for nine days and for eight nights the furnaces were fed unceasingly +with wood of <i>tcha</i>; 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 <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>take forth the vase; for I know that the task will have been +accomplished according to the command of the August." So they departed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>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 forever<a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>more, 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.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 276px;"> +<img src="images/175.png" width="276" height="124" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a> +<a name="NOTES" id="NOTES"></a>NOTES</h2> + + + + +<p>"<i>The Soul of the Great Bell.</i>"—The story of Ko-Ngai is one of the +collection entitled <i>Pe-Hiao-Tou-Choue</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>"<i>The Story of Ming-Y.</i>"—The singular phantom-tale upon which my work +is based forms the thirty-fourth story of the famous collection +<i>Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan</i>, 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 <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>version) of +the curious and obscene <i>Mai-yu-lang-toú-tchen-hoa-koueï</i> (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 +<i>Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan</i>; 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 <i>Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan</i>.</p> + +<p>"<i>The Legend of Tchi-Niu.</i>"—My authority for this tale is the following +legend from the thirty-fourth chapter of the <i>Kan-ing-p'ien</i>, or "Book +of Rewards and Punishments,"—a work attributed to Lao-tseu, which +contains some four hun<a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>dred anecdotes and traditions of the most curious +kind:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>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.—<i>Julien's French +Translation</i>, p. 119.</p></div> + +<p>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.)</p> + +<p>"<i>The Return of Yen-Tchin-King.</i>"—There may be an involuntary +anachronism in my version of this legend, which is <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>very pithily +narrated in the <i>Kan-ing-p'ien</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>"<i>The Tradition of the Tea-Plant.</i>"—My authority for this bit of +folklore is the brief statement published by Bretschneider in the +"Chinese Recorder" for 1871:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"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 <i>tea-shrub</i>, unknown until that +time."</p></div> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>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.</p> + +<p>"<i>The Tale of the Porcelain-God.</i>"—The good Père D'Entrecolles, who +first gave to Europe the secrets of Chinese porcelain-manufacture, wrote +one hundred and sixty years ago:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"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....</p> + +<p>"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 <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>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."</p></div> + +<p>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 <i>King-te-chin-thao-lou</i>, "History of the Porcelains of +King-te-chin" (a work <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 170px;"> +<img src="images/184.png" width="170" height="134" alt="Decorative motif" title="Decorative motif" /> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a> +<a name="Glossary" id="Glossary"></a>Glossary</h2> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 154px;"> +<img src="images/187.png" width="154" height="152" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + +<p class="big center gap"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a> +<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a> +<a name="GLOSSARY" id="GLOSSARY"></a>GLOSSARY</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Abhidharma</span>.—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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chih</span>.—"House"; but especially the house of the dead,—a tomb.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chu-sha-kih</span>.—The mandarin-orange.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Çramana</span>.—An ascetic; one who has subdued his senses. For an +interesting history of this term, see Burnouf,—"Introduction à +l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Damâri</span>.—A peculiar chant, of somewhat licentious character, +most commonly sung during the period of the<a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a> 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."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dogs of Fo</span>.—The <i>Dog of Fo</i> 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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fo</span>.—Buddha is called <i>Fo</i>, <i>Fuh</i>, <i>Fuh-tu</i>, <i>Hwut</i>, <i>Fat</i>, in +various Chinese dialects. The name is thought to be a corruption of the +Hindoo <i>Bodh</i>, 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, <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>and that the priests +have lost all recollection of the antique tongue,—repeating the texts +without the least comprehension of their meaning.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fuh-yin</span>.—An official holding in Chinese cities a position +corresponding to that of mayor in the Occident.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fung-hoang</span>.—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 <i>fung-hoang</i> figures largely in Chinese musical +myths and legends.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gopia</span> (or <span class="smcap">Gopis</span>).—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 <i>Prem-Ságar</i>, or<a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a> "Ocean of Love" (translated by Eastwick +and by others); and the sensuous <i>Gita-Govinda</i> 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 <i>Bhagavata +Parana</i>, 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."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hao-Khieou-Tchouan</span>.—This celebrated Chinese novel was +translated into French <a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heï-song-ché-tchoo</span>.—"One day when the Emperor Hiuan-tsong of +the Thang dynasty," says the <i>Tao-kia-ping-yu-che</i>, "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 [<i>Envoy of the Black Fir</i>]; and I have +come to tell you that whenever a true sage shall sit down to write, the +Twelve Divinities of Ink [<i>Long-pinn</i>] will appear upon the surface of +the ink he uses.'" See "L'Encre de Chine," by Maurice Jametel. Paris. +1882.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>Hoa-tchao</span>.—The "Birthday of a Hundred Flowers" falls upon the +fifteenth of the second spring-moon.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jade</span>.—Jade, or nephrite, a variety of jasper,—called by the +Chinese <i>yuh</i>,—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 +<i>Hiao-King</i> ("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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kabit</span>.—A poetical form much in favor with composers of Hindoo +religious chants: the <i>kabit</i> always consists of four verses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kao-ling</span>.—Literally, "the High Ridge," and originally the name +of a hilly range which furnished the best quality of clay to the +porcelain-makers. Subsequently <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>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 <i>kaolin</i>, or clay, was poetically termed the "bones," and +the <i>tun</i>, or quartz, the "flesh" of the porcelain; while the prepared +bricks of the combined substances were known as <i>pe-tun-tse</i>. Both +substances, the infusible and the fusible, are productions of the same +geological formation,—decomposed feldspathic rock.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kasí</span> (<i>or</i> <span class="smcap">Varanasi</span>).—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."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kiang-kou-jin</span>.—Literally, the "tell-old-<a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>story-men." For a +brief account of Chinese professional story-tellers, the reader may +consult Schlegel's entertaining introduction to the +<i>Mai-yu-lang-toú-tchen-hoa-koueï</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kin</span>.—The most perfect of Chinese musical instruments, also +called "the Scholar's Lute." The word <i>kin</i> also means "to prohibit"; +and this name is said to have been given to the instrument because +music, according to Chinese belief, "<i>restrains evil passions, and +corrects the human heart</i>." See Williams's "Middle Kingdom."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kouei</span>.—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:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><p><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a></p> +<span class="i0">"When I smite my [<i>musical</i>] stone,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be it gently, be it strongly,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then do the fiercest beasts of prey leap high for joy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the chiefs among the public officials do agree among themselves."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kwang-chau-fu</span>.—Literally, "The Broad City,"—the name of +Canton. It is also called "The City of Genii."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lí</span>.—A measure of distance. The length of the <i>li</i> has varied +considerably in ancient and in modern times. The present is given by +Williams as ten <i>li</i> to a league.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Li-Sao</span>.—"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 <i>Li-Sao</i> +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 <i>Li-Sao</i> has been made by <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>the Marquis Hervey de +Saint-Denys (Paris, 1870).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Li-shu</span>.—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 <i>Kan-ing-p'ien</i> affords +a good example of the superstition in question:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>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 (<i>antique</i>) characters: +TSÉ-TCH'IN-TCHANG-TCHUN-HEOU-CHIN,—which mean: "Child of the issue +of Tchang-tchun, who was a rebellious subject."—<i>Le<a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a> Livre des +Récompenses et des Peines, traduit par Stanislas Julien</i>, p. 446.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pagal</span>.—The ankle-ring commonly worn by Hindoo women; it is +also called <i>nupur</i>. It is hollow, and contains loose bits of metal, +which tinkle when the foot is moved.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">San-Hien</span>.—A three-stringed Chinese guitar. Its belly is +usually covered with snake-skin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Siu-fan-ti</span>.—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 <i>tsing-ming</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ta-chung Sz'</span>.—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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tao</span>.—The infinite being, or Universal Life, whence all forms +proceed: Literally, "the Way," in the sense of the<a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a> 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 <i>Tao-te-king</i>.... 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 <i>Tao-te-king</i>, pp. x-xv. ("Le Livre de la +Voie et de la Vertu." Paris, 1842.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thang</span>.—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.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Three Councillors</span>."—Six stars of the Great-Bear constellation +(ικ—λμ—νξ), as apparently arranged in pairs, are thus <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>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.")</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tien-Hia</span>.—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 <i>Tsin</i> 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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>Tsien</span>.—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 <i>tsien</i> to make one silver dollar.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tsing-jin</span>.—"Men of Tsing." From very ancient times the Chinese +have been wont to call themselves by the names of their famous +dynasties,—<i>Han-jin</i>, "the men of Han"; <i>Thang-jin</i>, "the men of +Thang," etc. <i>Ta Tsing Kwoh</i> ("Great Pure Kingdom") is the name given by +the present dynasty to China,—according to which the people might call +themselves <i>Tsing-jin</i>, or "men of Tsing." Williams, however, remarks +that they will not yet accept the appellation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Verses (Chinese)</span>.—The verses preceding "The Legend of +Tchi-Niu" afford some remarkable examples of Chinese onomatopœia. +They occur in the sixth strophe of <i>Miên-miên</i>, which is the third chant +of the first section of <i>Ta-ya</i>, the Third Book <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>of the <i>Chi-King</i>.(See +G. Pauthier's French version.) Dr. Legge translates the strophe thus:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>... 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.—<i>Sacred Books of the +East</i>; Vol. III., <i>The She-King</i>, p. 384.</p></div> + +<p>Pauthier translates the verses somewhat differently; preserving the +onomatopœia in three of the lines. <i>Hoûng-hoûng</i> are the sounds heard +in the timber-yards where the wood is being measured; from the workshops +of the builders respond the sounds of <i>tông-tông</i>; and the solid walls, +when fully finished off, give out the sound of <i>pîng-pîng</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Yao</span>.—"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, <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>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: <i>Chou-yao</i>, "porcelains of Chou"; +<i>Hong-tcheou-yao</i>, "porcelains of Hong-tcheou"; <i>Jou-yao</i>, "porcelains +of Jou-tcheou"; <i>Ting-yao</i>, "porcelains of Ting-tcheou"; <i>Ko-yao</i>," +porcelains of the Elder Brother [Thsang]"; <i>Khang-hi-nien-t'sang-yao</i>, +"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 <i>Tch'aï-yao</i>, "the porcelains of +Tch'aï" (which was the name of the family of the Emperor Chi-tsong); and +the <i>Kouan-yao</i>, or "Porcelains of Magistrates." Much more rarely the +names refer directly to the material or <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>artistic peculiarity of +porcelains,—as <i>Ou-ni-yao</i>, the "black-paste porcelains," or +<i>Pi-se-yao</i>, the "porcelains of hidden color." The word <i>khi</i>, sometimes +substituted for <i>yao</i> in these compound names, means "vases"; as +<i>Jou-khi</i>, "vases of Jou-tcheou"; <i>Kouan-khi</i>, "vases for Magistrates."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 179px;"> +<img src="images/204.png" width="179" height="142" alt="Chinese calligraphy" title="Chinese calligraphy" /> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CHINESE GHOSTS *** + +***** This file should be named 16261-h.htm or 16261-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/6/16261/ + +Produced by Bethanne M. 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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: ASCII + +*** 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 MOHLI-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, Remusat, 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 Sse,-- + 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 Sie-Thao."_ + + +Do you ask me who she was,--the beautiful Sie-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,--_Sie-Thao_. But, saving the whispering of +her name, what the trees say cannot be understood; and they alone +remember the years of Sie-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 Sie-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 +Sie of Moun-hao; Sie 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. Sie 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 Sie 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 Sie 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, Sie 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 Sie 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 Sie 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 Hei-song Che-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 Sie, 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 Sie 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. Sie, 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 Sie. 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 Sie 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, Sie'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 Sie 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 Sie 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 Sie. + + * * * * * + +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 Sie 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 SIE-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 Sie 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 Sie,--Sie-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. +Sie-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, "_Sie-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 Sie-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:-- + + _Khiu tchi ying-ying. + Tou tchi houng-houng. + Tch[)o] tchi tong-tong. + Si[)o] liu ping-ping._ + + + + +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-lie, 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-lie 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-lie 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-lie 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-lie. 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-lie; 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-lie 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-lie +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-lie, 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-lie; but Hi-lie would not extend his hand to +take it. Therefore Tchin-King replaced it in his bosom, and folding his +arms, looked Hi-lie calmly in the face, and waited. Again Hi-lie 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-lie, 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-lie 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-lie 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-lie, 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-lie 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-lie 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 Kasi 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 Cramanas, +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 Cramanas, 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 Tathagata, 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 Cramana. +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 Tathagata! 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 _damari_. 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-hi,--sacredly called Jin Houang-ti._ + + + + +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-sse-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 aerial 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 +Bacheliere 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-tou-tchen-hoa-kouei_ (Leyden, +1877), which itself forms the seventh recital of the same work. +Schlegel, Julien, Gardner, Birch, D'Entrecolles, Remusat, 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 Hu'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, Bhamini-Vilasa. + +"_The Tale of the Porcelain-God._"--The good Pere 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 Salvetat, 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. + +CRAMANA.--An ascetic; one who has subdued his senses. For an +interesting history of this term, see Burnouf,--"Introduction a +l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien." + +DAMARI.--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-Sagar_, 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 Theodore 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 "Poesies 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. + +HEI-SONG-CHE-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 Hei-song-che-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. + +KASI (_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-tou-tchen-hoa-kouei_. + +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." + +LI.--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 Hoei-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: + TSE-TCH'IN-TCHANG-TCHUN-HEOU-CHIN,--which mean: "Child of the issue + of Tchang-tchun, who was a rebellious subject."--_Le Livre des + Recompenses 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 Recompenses 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 Chi-Houang-ti, 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 _Mien-mien_, 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. _Houng-houng_ are the sounds heard +in the timber-yards where the wood is being measured; from the workshops +of the builders respond the sounds of _tong-tong_; and the solid walls, +when fully finished off, give out the sound of _ping-ping_. + +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'ai-yao_, "the porcelains of +Tch'ai" (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] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CHINESE GHOSTS *** + +***** This file should be named 16261.txt or 16261.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/6/16261/ + +Produced by Bethanne M. Simms, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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