A History of Chinese Literature. Giles Herbert Allen

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      A good specimen of his style will be found in the following short poem, entitled “The Genius of the Mountain.” It is one of “nine songs” which, together with a number of other pieces in a similar strain, have been classed under the general heading, Li Sao, as above.

      “Methinks there is a Genius of the hills, clad in wistaria, girdled with ivy, with smiling lips, of witching mien, riding on the red pard, wild cats galloping in the rear, reclining in a chariot, with banners of cassia, cloaked with the orchid, girt with azalea, culling the perfume of sweet flowers to leave behind a memory in the heart. But dark is the grove wherein I dwell. No light of day reaches it ever. The path thither is dangerous and difficult to climb. Alone I stand on the hill-top, while the clouds float beneath my feet, and all around is wrapped in gloom.

      “Gently blows the east wind; softly falls the rain. In my joy I become oblivious of home; for who in my decline would honour me now?

      “I pluck the larkspur on the hillside, amid the chaos of rock and tangled vine. I hate him who has made me an outcast, who has now no leisure to think of me.

      “I drink from the rocky spring. I shade myself beneath the spreading pine. Even though he were to recall me to him, I could not fall to the level of the world.

      “Now booms the thunder through the drizzling rain. The gibbons howl around me all the long night. The gale rushes fitfully through the whispering trees. And I am thinking of my Prince, but in vain; for I cannot lay my grief.”

      SUNG YÜ

      Another leading poet of the day was Sung Yü, of whom we know little beyond the fact that he was nephew of Ch’ü Yüan, and like his uncle both a statesman and a poet. The following extract exhibits him in a mood not far removed from the lamentations of the Li Sao: —

      “Among birds the phœnix, among fishes the leviathan holds the chiefest place;

      Cleaving the crimson clouds the phœnix soars apace,

      With only the blue sky above, far into the realms of space;

      But the grandeur of heaven and earth is as naught to the hedge-sparrow race.

      And the leviathan rises in one ocean to go to rest in a second,

      While the depth of a puddle by a humble minnow as the depth of the sea is reckoned.

      And just as with birds and with fishes, so too it is with man;

      Here soars a phœnix, there swims a leviathan …

      Behold the philosopher, full of nervous thought, with a flame that never grows dim,

      Dwelling complacently alone; say, what can the vulgar herd know of him?”

      As has been stated above, the poems of this school are irregular in metre; in fact, they are only approximately metrical. The poet never ends his line in deference to a prescribed number of feet, but lengthens or shortens to suit the exigency of his thought. Similarly, he may rhyme or he may not. The reader, however, is never conscious of any want of art, carried away as he is by flow of language and rapid succession of poetical imagery.

      Several other poets, such as Chia I and Tung-fang So, who cultivated this particular vein, but on a somewhat lower plane, belong to the second century B.C., thus overlapping a period which must be regarded as heralding the birth of a new style rather than occupied with the passing of the old.

      It may here be mentioned that many short pieces of doubtful age and authorship – some few unquestionably old – have been rescued by Chinese scholars from various sources, and formed into convenient collections. Of such is a verse known as “Yao’s Advice,” Yao being the legendary monarch mentioned in chapter ii., who is associated with Shun in China’s Golden Age: —

      “With trembling heart and cautious steps

      Walk daily in fear of God …

      Though you never trip over a mountain,

      You may often trip over a clod.”

      There is also the husbandman’s song, which enlarges upon the national happiness of those halcyon days: —

      “Work, work; – from the rising sun

      Till sunset comes and the day is done

      I plough the sod

      And harrow the clod,

      And meat and drink both come to me,

      So what care I for the powers that be?”

      INSCRIPTIONS

      It seems to have been customary in early days to attach inscriptions, poetical and otherwise, to all sorts of articles for daily use. On the bath-tub of T’ang, founder of the Shang dynasty in B.C. 1766, there was said to have been written these words: – “If any one on any one day can make a new man of himself, let him do so every day.” Similarly, an old metal mirror bore as its legend, “Man combs his hair every morning: why not his heart?” And the following lines are said to be taken from an ancient wash-basin: —

      “Oh, rather than sink in the world’s foul tide

      I would sink in the bottomless main;

      For he who sinks in the world’s foul tide

      In noisome depths shall for ever abide,

      But he who sinks in the bottomless main

      May hope to float to the surface again.”

      In this class of verse, too, the metre is often irregular and the rhyme a mere jingle, according to the canons of the stricter prosody which came into existence later on.

      CHAPTER VI

      TAOISM – THE “TAO-TÊ-CHING”

      TAO-TÊ-CHING

      The reader is now asked to begin once more at the sixth century B.C. So far we have dealt almost exclusively with what may be called orthodox literature, that is to say, of or belonging to or based upon the Confucian Canon. It seemed advisable to get that well off our hands before entering upon another branch, scarcely indeed as important, but much more difficult to handle. This branch consists of the literature of Taoism, or that which has gathered around what is known as the Tao or Way of Lao Tzŭ, growing and flourishing alongside of, though in direct antagonism to, that which is founded upon the criteria and doctrines of Confucius. Unfortunately it is quite impossible to explain at the outset in what this Tao actually consists. According to Lao Tzŭ himself, “Those who know do not tell; those who tell do not know.” It is hoped, however, that by the time the end of this chapter is reached, some glimmering of the meaning of Tao may have reached the minds of those who have been patient enough to follow the argument.

      LAO TZŬ

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