Chinese Literature

129

What these vegetables exactly were it is difficult to say; and there are different readings of the characters for kwoh, brings the two names together in a phrase, but the rendering of it is simply "a soup of simples."

130

It is likely that these men were really hunters; and, when brought before Fâ-hien, because he was a Sramana, they thought they would please him by saying they were disciples of Buddha. But what had disciples of Buddha to do with hunting and taking life? They were caught in their own trap, and said they were looking for peaches.

131

Han Koong Tsew, literally "Autumn in the Palace of Han"; but in Chinese, Autumn is emblematic of Sorrow, as Spring is of Joy, and may therefore be rendered by what it represents.

132

In Chinese, Ko-ban.

133

The mother of Hoeyte, a bold and able woman, who ruled for her son, the second emperor of Han.

134

Boding a short but fatal distinction to her offspring.

135

Instead of glass, to defend it from the wind.

136

The principal taxes in China are the land-tax, customs, salt monopoly, and personal service; which last is the source of much oppression to the lowest orders, who have nothing but their labor to contribute.

137

The honor of the imperial alliance being the chief object.

138

Changngo, the goddess of the moon, gives her name to the finely curved eyebrows of the Chinese ladies, which are compared to the lunar crescent when only a day or two old.

139

Chow-wong was the last of the Shang dynasty, and infamous by his debaucheries and cruelties, in concert with his empress Takee, the Theodora of Chinese history.

140

The imperial pronoun "Tchin," me, is with very good taste supplied by I in these impassioned passages.

141

It may be observed that the great wall is never once expressly mentioned through this drama. The expression used is Pëensih, the border, or frontier. The wall had existed two hundred years at this time, but the real frontier was beyond it.

142

Or Saghalien, which falls into the sea of Ochotsk.

143

Said to exist now and to be green all the year.

144

There is nothing in this more extravagant than the similar vision in the tragedy of Richard III.

145

Yengo, a species of wild goose, is the emblem in China of intersexual attachment and fidelity, being said never to pair again after the loss of its mate. An image of it is worshipped by newly married couples.

146

Literally, "dragon person." The emperor's throne is often called the "dragon seat."