Part 17

Ten times he knocked upon the gate, But nine, they opened not, Above the wall he plainly saw, A ripe, red apricot.

He continued to represent quotations from the poets and explain them as he went along.

There was one which indicated that some one was ascending the steps to the jade platform on which the dust had settled as it does on everything in Peking; at the same time the verse told us that

Step by step we reach the platform, All of jade of purest green, Call a child to come and sweep it, But he cannot sweep it clean.

"You know," he went on, "the cottages of many of the poets were near the beautiful lakes in central China, in the wild heights of the mountains, or upon the banks of some flowing stream. In this one the pavilion of the poet is on the bank of the river, and we are told that,

In his cottage sat the poet Thinking, as the moon went by, That the moonlight on the water, Made the water like the sky."

Changing it somewhat he made a cottage of a different kind. This was not made for the picture's sake, but to illustrate a sentence it was designed to impress upon the child's mind. The quotation is somewhat as follows:

The ringing of the evening bells, The moon a crescent splendid, The rustling of the swallow's wings Betoken winter ended.

The child looked up at me significantly as he turned to one which represented a Buddhist priest. I expected something of a joke at the priest's expense as in the nursery rhymes and games, but there was none. That would injure the sale of the book. The inscription told us that "a Buddhist lantern will reflect light enough to illuminate the whole universe."

Turning to the next page we found a priest sitting in front of the temple in the act of beating his wooden drum, while the poet exclaims:

O crystal pool and silvery moon, So clear and pure thou art, There's nought to which thou wilt compare Except a Buddha's heart.

The child next directed our attention to various kinds of flowers, more especially the marigold. A man in a boat rows with one hand while he points backward to the blossoming marigold, while in another picture the poet tells us that,

Along the eastern wall, We pluck the marigold, While on the south horizon, The mountain we behold.

"What is that?" I asked as he turned to a picture of an old man riding on a cow.

"That is Laotze, the founder of Taoism, crossing the frontier at the Han Ku Pass between Shansi and Shensi, riding upon a cow. Nobody knows where he went."

There were other pictures of Taoist patriarchs keeping sheep. By their magic power they turned the sheep into stones when they were tired watching them, and again the inscriptions told us, "the stones became sheep at his call." Still others represented them in search of the elixir of life, while in others they were riding on a snail.

The object of thus bringing in incidents from all these Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and other sources is that by catering to all classes the book may have wide distribution, and whatever the Confucianist may say, it must be admitted that the other religions have a strong hold upon the popular mind.

The last twenty-six illustrations in Vol. I represent various incidents in the life, history and employments of women.

The first of these is an ancient empress "weaving at night by her palace window."

Another represents a woman in her boat and we are told that, "leaving her oar she leisurely sang a song entitled, 'Plucking the Caltrops.'"

Another represents a woman "wearing a pomegranate-colored dress riding a pear-blossom colored horse." A peculiar combination to say the least.

The fisherman's wife is represented in her boat, "making her toilet at dawn using the water as a mirror." While we are assured also that the woman sitting upon her veranda "finds it very difficult to thread her needle by the pale light of the moon," which fact, few, I think, would question.

In one of the pictures "a beautiful maiden, in the bright moonlight, came beneath the trees." This is evidently contrary to Chinese ideas of propriety, for the Classic for girls tells us that a maiden should not go out at night except in company with a servant bearing a lantern. As it was bright moonlight, however, let us hope she was excusable.

This sauntering about in the court is not uncommon if we believe what the books say, for in the next picture we are told that:

As near the middle summer-house, The maiden sauntered by, Upon the jade pin in her hair There lit a dragon-fly.

The next illustration represented the wife of the famous poet Ssu-Ma Hsiang-Ju in her husband's wine shop.

This poet fell in love with the widowed daughter of a wealthy merchant, the result of which was that the young couple eloped and were married; and as the daughter was disinherited by her irate parent, she was compelled to wait on customers in her husband's wine shop, which she did without complaint. In spite of their imprudent conduct, and for the time, its unhappy results, as soon as the poet had become so famous as to be summoned to court, the stern father relented, and, as it was a case of undoubted affection, which the Chinese readily appreciate they have always had the sympathy of the whole Chinese people.

One of the most popular women in Chinese history is Mu Lan, the A Chinese Joan of Arc. Her father, a great general, being too old to take charge of his troops, and her brothers too young, she dressed herself in boy's clothing, enrolled herself in the army, mounted her father's trusty steed, and led his soldiers to battle, thus bringing honor to herself and renown upon her family.