LI SSŬ was a scholar himself, and the reputed inventor of the
script known as the Lesser Seal, which was in vogue for several centuries.
The following is from a memorial of his against the proscription of nobles
and others from rival States:--
“As broad acres yield large crops, so for
a nation to be great there should be a great population; and for soldiers to
be daring their generals should be brave. Not a single clod was added to
T’ai-shan in vain: hence the huge mountain we now behold. The merest
streamlet is received into the bosom of Ocean: hence the Ocean’s
unfathomable expanse. And wise and virtuous is the ruler who scorns not the
masses below. For him, no boundaries of realm, no distinctions of
nationality exist. The four seasons enrich him; the Gods bless him; and, like
our rulers of old, no man’s hand is against him.”
The First Emperor
died in B.C. 210,[6] and his feeble son, the Second Emperor, was put to death
in 207, thus bringing their line to an end. The vacant throne was won by a
quondam beadle, who established the glorious House of Han, in memory of which
Chinese of the present day, chiefly in the north, are still proud to call
themselves Sons of Han.
So soon as the empire settled down to comparative
peace, a mighty effort was made to undo at least some of the mischief
sustained by the national literature. An extra impetus was given to this
movement by the fact that under the First Emperor, if we can believe
tradition, the materials of writing had undergone a radical change. A
general, named Meng T’ien, added to the triumphs of the sword the invention
of the camel’s-hair brush, which the Chinese use as a pen. The
clumsy bamboo tablet and stylus were discarded, and strips of cloth or
silk came into general use, and were so employed until the first
century A.D., when paper was invented by Ts’ai Lun. Some say
that brickdust and water did duty at first for ink. However that may be,
the form of the written character underwent a corresponding change to
suit the materials employed.
Meanwhile, books were brought out of
their hiding-places, and scholars like K’UNG AN-KUO, a descendant of
Confucius in the twelfth degree, set to work to restore the lost classics. He
deciphered the text of the Book of History, which had been discovered when
pulling down the old house where Confucius once lived, and transcribed
large portions of it from the ancient into the later script. He also wrote
a commentary on the Analects and another on the Filial Piety
Classic.
* * * * * [Sidenote: CH’AO
TS’O--LI LING]
CH’AO TS’O (perished B.C. 155), popularly known
as Wisdom-Bag, was a statesman rather than an author. Still, many of
his memorials to the throne were considered masterpieces, and have
been preserved accordingly. He wrote on the military operations against
the Huns, pleading for the employment of frontier tribes, “barbarians,
who in point of food and skill are closely allied to the Huns.” “But
arms,” he says, “are a curse, and war is a dread thing. For in the
twinkling of an eye the mighty may be humbled, and the strong may be
brought low.” In an essay “On the Value of Agriculture” he writes
thus:--
“Crime begins in poverty; poverty in insufficiency of
food; insufficiency of food in neglect of agriculture. Without
agriculture, man has no tie to bind him to the soil. Without such tie he
readily leaves his birth-place and his home. He is like unto the birds of
the air or the beasts of the field. Neither battlemented cities, nor
deep moats, nor harsh laws, nor cruel punishments, can subdue this
roving spirit that is strong within him.
“He who is cold examines not
the quality of cloth; he who is hungry tarries not for choice meats. When
cold and hunger come upon men, honesty and shame depart. As man is
constituted, he must eat twice daily, or hunger; he must wear clothes, or be
cold. And if the stomach cannot get food and the body clothes, the love of
the fondest mother cannot keep her children at her side. How then should a
sovereign keep his subjects gathered around him?
“The wise ruler knows
this. Therefore he concentrates the energies of his people upon agriculture.
He levies light taxes. He extends the system of grain storage, to provide for
his subjects at times when their resources fail.”
*
* * * *
[Sidenote: LI LING]
The name of LI LING
(second and first centuries B.C.) is a familiar one to every Chinese
schoolboy. He was a military official who was sent in command of 800 horse to
reconnoitre the territory of the Huns; and returning successful from this
expedition, he was promoted to a high command and was again employed
against these troublesome neighbours. With a force of only 5000 infantry
he penetrated into the Hun territory as far as Mount Ling-chi (?),
where he was surrounded by an army of 30,000 of the Khan’s soldiers; and
when his troops had exhausted all their arrows, he was forced to
surrender. At this the Emperor was furious; and later on, when he heard
that Li Ling was training the Khan’s soldiers in the art of war as
then practised by the Chinese, he caused his mother, wife, and children
to be put to death. Li Ling remained some twenty years, until his
death, with the Huns, and was highly honoured by the Khan, who gave him
his daughter to wife.
With the renegade Li Ling is associated his
patriot contemporary, SU WU, who also met with strange adventures among the
Huns. Several Chinese envoys had been imprisoned by the latter, and not
allowed to return; and by way of reprisal, Hun envoys had been imprisoned
in China. But a new Khan had recently sent back all the imprisoned
envoys, and in A.D. 100 Su Wu was despatched upon a mission of peace to
return the Hun envoys who had been detained by the Chinese. Whilst at
the Court of the Khan his fellow-envoys revolted, and on the strength
of this an attempt was made to persuade him to throw off his
allegiance and enter the service of the Huns; upon which he tried to
commit suicide, and wounded himself so severely that he lay unconscious
for some hours. He subsequently slew a Chinese renegade with his own hand;
and then when it was found that he was not to be forced into submission, he
was thrown into a dungeon and left without food for several days. He kept
himself alive by sucking snow and gnawing a felt rug; and at length the Huns,
thinking that he was a supernatural being, sent him away north and set him to
tend sheep. Then Li Ling was ordered to try once more by brilliant offers to
shake his unswerving loyalty, but all was in vain. In the year 86, peace was
made with the Huns, and the Emperor asked for the return of Su Wu. To this
the Huns replied that he was dead; but a former assistant to Su Wu
bade the new envoy tell the Khan that the Emperor had shot a goose with a
letter tied to its leg, from which he had learnt the whereabouts of his
missing envoy. This story so astonished the Khan that Su Wu was released, and
in B.C.. 81 returned to China after a captivity of nineteen years. He had
gone away in the prime of life; he returned a white-haired and broken-down
old man.
Li Ling and Su Wu are said to have exchanged poems at parting,
and these are to be found published in collections under their
respective names. Some doubt has been cast upon the genuineness of one of
those attributed to Li Ling. It was pointed out by Hung Mai, a
brilliant critic of the twelfth century, that a certain word was used in
the poem, which, being part of the personal name of a recent Emperor,
would at that date have been taboo. No such stigma attaches to the
verses by Su Wu, who further gave to his wife a parting poem, which has
been preserved, promising her that if he lived he would not fail to
return, and if he died he would never forget her. But most famous of all,
and still a common model for students, is a letter written by Li Ling
to Su Wu, after the latter’s return to China, in reply to an
affectionate appeal to him to return also. Its genuineness has been
questioned by Su Shih of the Sung dynasty, but not by the greatest of modern
critics, Lin Hsi-chung, who declares that its pathos is enough to make even
the gods weep, and that it cannot possibly have come from any other
hand save that of Li Ling. With this verdict the foreign student may
well rest content. Here is the letter:--
“O Tzŭ-ch’ing, O my friend,
happy in the enjoyment of a glorious reputation, happy in the prospect of an
imperishable name,--there is no misery like exile in a far-off foreign land,
the heart brimful of longing thoughts of home! I have thy kindly letter,
bidding me of good cheer, kinder than a brother’s words; for which my soul
thanks thee.
“Ever since the hour of my surrender until now, destitute of
all resource, I have sat alone with the bitterness of my grief. All
day long I see none but barbarians around me. Skins and felt protect
me from wind and rain. With mutton and whey I satisfy my hunger and
slake my thirst. Companions with whom to while time away, I have none.
The whole country is stiff with black ice. I hear naught but the moaning
of the bitter autumn blast, beneath which all vegetation has
disappeared. I cannot sleep at night. I turn and listen to the distant sound
of Tartar pipes, to the whinnying of Tartar steeds. In the morning I
sit up and listen still, while tears course down my cheeks. O
Tzŭ-ch’ing, of what stuff am I, that I should do aught but grieve? The day of
thy departure left me disconsolate indeed. I thought of my aged
mother butchered upon the threshold of the grave. I thought of my
innocent wife and child, condemned to the same cruel fate. Deserving as I
might have been of Imperial censure, I am now an object of pity to all.
Thy return was to honour and renown, while I remained behind with
infamy and disgrace. Such is the divergence of man’s destiny.
“Born
within the domain of refinement and justice, I passed into an environment of
vulgar ignorance. I left behind me obligations to sovereign and family for
life amid barbarian hordes; and now barbarian children will carry on the line
of my forefathers. And yet my merit was great, my guilt of small account. I
had no fair hearing; and when I pause to think of these things, I ask to what
end I have lived? With a thrust I could have cleared myself of all blame: my
severed throat would have borne witness to my resolution; and between me and
my country all would have been over for aye. But to kill myself would
have been of no avail: I should only have added to my shame. I
therefore steeled myself to obloquy and to life. There were not wanting those
who mistook my attitude for compliance, and urged me to a nobler
course; ignorant that the joys of a foreign land are sources only of a
keener grief.
“O Tzŭ-ch’ing, O my friend, I will complete the
half-told record of my former tale. His late Majesty commissioned me, with
five thousand infantry under my command, to carry on operations in a distant
country. Five brother generals missed their way: I alone reached the
theatre of war. With rations for a long march, leading on my men, I
passed beyond the limits of the Celestial Land, and entered the territory
of the fierce Huns. With five thousand men I stood opposed to a
hundred thousand: mine jaded foot-soldiers, theirs horsemen fresh from
the stable. Yet we slew their leaders, and captured their standards,
and drove them back in confusion towards the north. We obliterated
their very traces: we swept them away like dust: we beheaded their general.
A martial spirit spread abroad among my men. With them, to die in
battle was to return to their homes; while I--I venture to think that I
had already accomplished something.
“This victory was speedily
followed by a general rising of the Huns. New levies were trained to the use
of arms, and at length another hundred thousand barbarians were arrayed
against me. The Hun chieftain himself appeared, and with his army surrounded
my little band, so unequal in strength,--foot-soldiers opposed to horse.
Still my tired veterans fought, each man worth a thousand of the foe, as,
covered with wounds, one and all struggled bravely to the fore. The plain
was strewed with the dying and the dead: barely a hundred men were
left, and these too weak to hold a spear and shield. Yet, when I waved
my hand and shouted to them, the sick and wounded arose. Brandishing
their blades, and pointing towards the foe, they dismissed the Tartar
cavalry like a rabble rout. And even when their arms were gone, their
arrows spent, without a foot of steel in their hands, they still
rushed, yelling, onward, each eager to lead the way. The very heavens and
the earth seemed to gather round me, while my warriors drank tears
of blood. Then the Hunnish chieftain, thinking that we should not
yield, would have drawn off his forces. But a false traitor told him all:
the battle was renewed, and we were lost.
“The Emperor Kao Ti, with
300,000 men at his back, was shut up in P’ing-ch’eng. Generals he had, like
clouds; counsellors, like drops of rain. Yet he remained seven days without
food, and then barely escaped with life. How much more then I, now blamed on
all sides that I did not die? This was my crime. But, O Tzŭ-ch’ing, canst
thou say that I would live from craven fear of death? Am I one to turn my
back on my country and all those dear to me, allured by sordid thoughts of
gain? It was not indeed without cause that I did not elect to die. I
longed, as explained in my former letter, to prove my loyalty to my
prince. Rather than die to no purpose, I chose to live and to establish my
good name. It was better to achieve something than to perish. Of old, Fan
Li did not slay himself after the battle of Hui-chi; neither did Ts’ao
Mo die after the ignominy of three defeats. Revenge came at last; and
thus I too had hoped to prevail. Why then was I overtaken with
punishment before the plan was matured? Why were my own flesh and blood
condemned before the design could be carried out? It is for this that I raise
my face to Heaven, and beating my breast, shed tears of blood.
“O my
friend, thou sayest that the House of Han never fails to reward a deserving
servant. But thou art thyself a servant of the House, and it would ill beseem
thee to say other words than these. Yet Hsiao and Fan were bound in chains;
Han and P’eng were sliced to death; Ch’ao Ts’o was beheaded. Chou Po was
disgraced, and Tou Ying paid the penalty with his life. Others, great in
their generation, have also succumbed to the intrigues of base men, and have
been overwhelmed beneath a weight of shame from which they were unable to
emerge. And now, the misfortunes of Fan Li and Ts’ao Mo command the
sympathies of all.
“My grandfather filled heaven and earth with the fame
of his exploits--the bravest of the brave. Yet, fearing the animosity of
an Imperial favourite, he slew himself in a distant land, his death
being followed by the secession, in disgust, of many a brother-hero. Can
this be the reward of which thou speakest?
“Thou too, O my friend, an
envoy with a slender equipage, sent on that mission to the robber race, when
fortune failed thee even to the last resource of the dagger. Then years of
miserable captivity, all but ended by death among the wilds of the far north.
Thou left us full of young life, to return a graybeard; thy old mother dead,
thy wife gone from thee to another. Seldom has the like of this been known.
Even the savage barbarian respected thy loyal spirit: how much more the
lord of all under the canopy of the sky? A many-acred barony should
have been thine, the ruler of a thousand-charioted fief! Nevertheless,
they tell me ’twas but two paltry millions, and the chancellorship of
the Tributary States. Not a foot of soil repaid thee for the past,
while some cringing courtier gets the marquisate of ten thousand
families, and each greedy parasite of the Imperial house is gratified by
the choicest offices of the State. If then thou farest thus, what could
I expect? I have been heavily repaid for that I did not die. Thou
hast been meanly rewarded for thy unswerving devotion to thy prince.
This is barely that which should attract the absent servant back to
his fatherland.
“And so it is that I do not now regret the past.
Wanting though I may have been in my duty to the State, the State was wanting
also in gratitude towards me. It was said of old, ‘A loyal subject, though
not a hero, will rejoice to die for his country.’ I would die joyfully
even now; but the stain of my prince’s ingratitude can never be wiped
away. Indeed, if the brave man is not to be allowed to achieve a name,
but must die like a dog in a barbarian land, who will be found to crook
the back and bow the knee before an Imperial throne, where the bitter
pens of courtiers tell their lying tales?
“O my friend, look for me no
more. O Tzŭ-ch’ing, what shall I say? A thousand leagues lie between us, and
separate us for ever. I shall live out my life as it were in another sphere:
my spirit will find its home among a strange people. Accept my last adieu.
Speak for me to my old acquaintances, and bid them serve their sovereign
well. O my friend, be happy in the bosom of thy family, and think of me no
more. Strive to take all care of thyself; and when time and opportunity are
thine, write me once again in reply.
“Li Ling salutes
thee!”
* * * * *
[Sidenote: LU
WEN-SHU]
One of the Chinese models of self-help alluded to in the _San
Tzŭ Ching_, the famous school primer, to be described later on, is
LU WEN-SHU (first century B.C.). The son of a village gaoler, he was
sent by his father to tend sheep, in which capacity he seems to have
formed sheets of writing material by plaiting rushes, and otherwise to
have succeeded in educating himself. He became an assistant in a
prison, and there the knowledge of law which he had picked up stood him
in such good stead that he was raised to a higher position; and
then, attracting the notice of the governor, he was still further
advanced, and finally took his degree, ultimately rising to the rank of
governor. In B.C. 67 he submitted to the throne the following
well-known memorial:--
“May it please your Majesty.
“Of the ten
great follies of our predecessors, one still survives in the
maladministration of justice which prevails.
“Under the Ch’ins learning
was at a discount; brute force carried everything before it. Those who
cultivated a spirit of charity and duty towards their neighbour were
despised. Judicial appointments were the prizes coveted by all. He who spoke
out the truth was stigmatised as a slanderer, and he who strove to expose
abuses was set down as a pestilent fellow. Consequently all who acted up to
the precepts of our ancient code found themselves out of place in their
generation, and loyal words of good advice to the sovereign remained locked
up within their bosoms, while hollow notes of obsequious flattery soothed
the monarch’s ear and lulled his heart with false images, to the
exclusion of disagreeable realities. And so the rod of empire fell from
their grasp for ever.
“At the present moment the State rests upon the
immeasurable bounty and goodness of your Majesty. We are free from the
horrors of war, from the calamities of hunger and cold. Father and son,
husband and wife, are united in their happy homes. Nothing is wanting to make
this a golden age save only reform in the administration of
justice.
“Of all trusts, this is the greatest and most sacred. The dead
man can never come back to life: that which is once cut off cannot
be joined again. ‘Rather than slay an innocent man, it were better
that the guilty escape.’ Such, however, is not the view of our
judicial authorities of to-day. With them, oppression and severity are
reckoned to be signs of magisterial acumen and lead on to fortune,
whereas leniency entails naught but trouble. Therefore their chief aim is
to compass the death of their victims; not that they entertain any
grudge against humanity in general, but simply that this is the shortest
cut to their own personal advantage. Thus, our market-places run
with blood, our criminals throng the gaols, and many thousands
annually suffer death. These things are injurious to public morals and
hinder the advent of a truly golden age.
“Man enjoys life only when
his mind is at peace; when he is in distress, his thoughts turn towards
death. Beneath the scourge what is there that cannot be wrung from the lips
of the sufferer? His agony is overwhelming, and he seeks to escape by
speaking falsely. The officials profit by the opportunity, and cause him to
say what will best confirm his guilt. And then, fearing lest the conviction
be quashed by higher courts, they dress the victim’s deposition to suit the
circumstances of the case, so that, when the record is complete, even were
Kao Yao[7] himself to rise from the dead, he would declare that death still
left a margin of unexpiated crime. This, because of the refining
process adopted to ensure the establishment of guilt.
“Our magistrates
indeed think of nothing else. They are the bane of the people. They keep in
view their own ends, and care not for the welfare of the State. Truly they
are the worst criminals of the age. Hence the saying now runs, ‘Chalk out a
prison on the ground, and no one would remain within. Set up a gaoler of
wood, and he will be found standing there alone.’[8] Imprisonment has become
the greatest of all misfortunes, while among those who break the law, who
violate family ties, who choke the truth, there are none to be compared in
iniquity with the officers of justice themselves.
“Where you let the
kite rear its young undisturbed, there will the phœnix come and build its
nest. Do not punish for misguided advice, and by and by valuable suggestions
will flow in. The men of old said, ‘Hills and jungles shelter many noxious
things; rivers and marshes receive much filth; even the finest gems are not
wholly without flaw. Surely then the ruler of an empire should put up with a
little abuse.’ But I would have your Majesty exempt from vituperation, and
open to the advice of all who have aught to say. I would have freedom of
speech in the advisers of the throne. I would sweep away the errors
which brought the downfall of our predecessors. I would have reverence
for the virtues of our ancient kings and reform in the administration
of justice, to the utter confusion of those who now pervert its
course. Then indeed would the golden age be renewed over the face of the
glad earth, and the people would move ever onwards in peace and
happiness boundless as the sky itself.”
* * *
* *
LIU HSIANG (B.C. 80-89) was a descendant of the beadle
founder of the great Han dynasty. Entering into official life, he sought to
curry favour with the reigning Emperor by submitting some secret works on the
black art, towards which his Majesty was much inclined. The results not
proving successful, he was thrown into prison, but was soon released that he
might carry on the publication of the commentary on the Spring and Autumn by
Ku-liang. He also revised and re-arranged the historical episodes known as
the _Chan Kuo Ts’e_, wrote treatises on government and some poetry, and
compiled Biographies of Eminent Women, the first work of its kind.
His
son, LIU HSIN, was a precocious boy, who early distinguished himself by wide
reading in all branches of literature. He worked with his father upon the
restoration of the classical texts, especially of the Book of Changes, and
later on was chiefly instrumental in establishing the position of Tso’s
Commentary on the Spring and Autumn. He catalogued the Imperial Library, and
in conjunction with his father discovered--some say compiled--the
Chou Ritual.
* * * *
*
[Sidenote: YANG HSIUNG]
A well-known figure in Chinese
literature is YANG HSIUNG (B.C. 53-A.D. 18). As a boy he was fond of straying
from the beaten track and reading whatever he could lay his hands on. He
stammered badly, and consequently gave much time to meditation. He propounded
an ethical criterion occupying a middle place between those insisted upon
by Mencius and by Hsun K’uang, teaching that the nature of man at birth is
neither good nor evil, but a mixture of both, and that development in either
direction depends wholly upon environment. In glorification of the Book of
Changes he wrote the _T’ai Hsuan Ching_, and to emphasise the value of the
Confucian Analects he produced a philosophical treatise known as the _Fa
Yen_, both between A.D. 1 and 6. On completion of this last, his most famous
work, a wealthy merchant of the province was so struck by its excellence that
he offered to give 100,000 _cash_ if his name should merely be mentioned in
it. But Yang answered with scorn that a stag in a pen or an ox in a cage
would not be more out of place than the name of a man with nothing but
money to recommend him in the sacred pages of a book. Liu Hsin,
however, sneeringly suggested that posterity would use Yang Hsiung’s work
to cover pickle-jars.
Besides composing some mediocre poetry, Yang
Hsiung wrote on acupuncture, music, and philology. There is little doubt that
he did not write the _Fang Yen_, a vocabulary of words and phrases used
in various parts of the empire, which was steadily attributed to him
until Hung Mai, a critic of the twelfth century, already mentioned in
Chapter I. of this Book, made short work of his claims.
*
* * * *
A brilliant writer who attracted much attention
in his day was WANG CH’UNG (A.D. 27-97). He is said to have picked up his
education at bookstalls, with the aid of a superbly retentive memory. Only
one of his works is extant, the _Lun Heng_, consisting of eighty-five
essays on a variety of subjects. In these he tilts against the errors of
the age, and exposes even Confucius and Mencius to free and
searching criticisms. He is consequently ranked as a heterodox thinker.
He showed that the soul could neither exist after death as a spirit
nor exercise any influence upon the living. When the body decomposes,
the soul, a phenomenon inseparable from vitality, perishes with it.
He further argued that if the souls of human beings were immortal,
those of animals would be immortal likewise; and that space itself would
not suffice to contain the countless shades of the men and creatures of
all time.
MA JUNG (A.D. 79-166) was popularly known as the Universal
Scholar. His learning in Confucian lore was profound, and he taught upwards
of one thousand pupils. He introduced the system of printing notes or
comments in the body of the page, using for that purpose smaller characters
cut in double columns; and it was by a knowledge of this fact that a
clever critic of the T’ang dynasty was able to settle the spuriousness of
an early edition of the _Tao-Te-Ching_ with double-column
commentary, which had been attributed to Ho Shang Kung, a writer of the
second century B.C.
[Sidenote: TS’AI YUNG--CHENG HSUAN]
TS’AI
YUNG (A.D. 133-192), whose tippling propensities earned for him the nickname
of the Drunken Dragon, is chiefly remembered in connection with literature as
superintending the work of engraving on stone the authorised text of the Five
Classics. With red ink he wrote these out on forty-six tablets for the
workmen to cut. The tablets were placed in the Hung-tu College, and fragments
of them are said to be still in existence.
The most famous of the
pupils who sat at the feet of Ma Jung was CHENG HSUAN (A.D. 127-200). He is
one of the most voluminous of all the commentators upon the Confucian
classics. He lived for learning. The very slave-girls of his household were
highly educated, and interlarded their conversation with quotations from the
Odes. He was nevertheless fond of wine, and is said to have been able to take
three hundred cups at a sitting without losing his head. Perhaps it may be as
well to add that a Chinese cup holds about a thimbleful. As an instance
of the general respect in which he was held, it is recorded that at
his request the chief of certain rebels spared the town of Kao-mi
(his native place), marching forward by another route. In A.D. 200
Confucius appeared to him in a vision, and he knew by this token that his
hour was at hand. Consequently, he was very loth to respond to a
summons sent to him from Chi-chou in Chihli by the then powerful Yuan Shao.
He set out indeed upon the journey, but died on the way.
It is
difficult to bring the above writers, representatives of a class,
individually to the notice of the reader. Though each one wandered into
by-paths of his own, the common lode-star was Confucianism--elucidation of
the Confucian Canon. For although, with us, commentaries upon the classics
are not usually regarded as literature, they are so regarded by the Chinese,
who place such works in the very highest rank, and reward successful
commentators with the coveted niche in the Confucian
temple.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] An account of the mausoleum built to
receive his remains will be found in Chapter iii. of this Book.
[7] A
famous Minister of Crime in the mythical ages.
[8] Contrary to what was
actually the case in the Golden Age.
CHAPTER
II
POETRY
At the beginning of the second century B.C., poetry
was still composed on the model of the _Li Sao_, and we are in possession of
a number of works assigned to Chia I (B.C. 199-168), Tung-fang So (_b._
B.C. 160), Liu Hsiang, and others, all of which follow on the lines of
Ch’u Yuan’s great poem. But gradually, with the more definite
establishment of what we may call classical influence, poets went back to
find their exemplars in the Book of Poetry, which came as it were from
the very hand of Confucius himself. Poems were written in metres of
four, five, and seven words to a line. Ssŭ-ma Hsiang-ju (_d._ B.C. 117),
a gay Lothario who eloped with a young widow, made such a name with
his verses that he was summoned to Court, and appointed by the Emperor
to high office. His poems, however, have not survived.
MEI SHENG (_d._
B.C. 140), who formed his style on Ssŭ-ma, has the honour of being the first
to bring home to his fellow-countrymen the extreme beauty of the five-word
metre. From him modern poetry may be said to date. Many specimens of his
workmanship are extant:--
(1.) “_Green grows the grass upon the
bank, The willow-shoots are long and lank; A lady in a glistening
gown Opens the casement and looks down The roses on her cheek blush
bright, Her rounded arm is dazzling white; A singing-girl in early
life, And now a careless roue’s wife.... Ah, if he does not mind his
own, He’ll find some day the bird has flown!_”
(2.) “_The red
hibiscus and the reed, The fragrant flowers of marsh and mead, All
these I gather as I stray, As though for one now far away. I strive to
pierce with straining eyes The distance that between us lies. Alas
that hearts which beat as one Should thus be parted and
undone!_”
[Sidenote: LIU-HENG--LIU CH’E]
LIU HENG (_d_. B.C. 157)
was the son by a concubine of the founder of the Han dynasty, and succeeded
in B.C. 180 as fourth Emperor of the line. For over twenty years he
ruled wisely and well. He is one of the twenty-four classical examples
of filial piety, having waited on his sick mother for three years
without changing his clothes. He was a scholar, and was canonised after
death by a title which may fairly be rendered “Beauclerc.” The following is
a poem which he wrote on the death of his illustrious father, who, if
we can accept as genuine the remains attributed to him, was himself also
a poet:--
“_I look up, the curtains are there as of yore; I
look down, and there is the mat on the floor; These things I behold, but
the man is no more._
“_To the infinite azure his spirit has
flown, And I am left friendless, uncared-for, alone, Of solace bereft,
save to weep and to moan._
“_The deer on the hillside caressingly
bleat, And offer the grass for their young ones to eat, While birds of
the air to their nestlings bring meat_
“_But I a poor orphan must ever
remain, My heart, still so young, overburdened with pain For him I
shall never set eyes on again._
“_’Tis a well-worn old saying, which
all men allow, That grief stamps the deepest of lines on the
brow: Alas for my hair, it is silvery now!_
“_Alas for my father,
cut off in his pride! Alas that no more I may stand by his side! Oh,
where were the gods when that great hero died?_”
The literary fame of the
Beauclerc was rivalled, if not surpassed, by his grandson, LIU CH’E (B.C.
156-87), who succeeded in B.C. 140 as sixth Emperor of the Han dynasty. He
was an enthusiastic patron of literature. He devoted great attention to music
as a factor in national life. He established important religious sacrifices
to heaven and earth. He caused the calendar to be reformed by his grand
astrologer, the historian SSŬ-MA CH’IEN, from which date accurate
chronology may be almost said to begin. His generals carried the Imperial
arms into Central Asia, and for many years the Huns were held in
check. Notwithstanding his enlightened policy, the Emperor was
personally much taken up with the magic and mysteries which were being
gradually grafted on to the Tao of Lao Tzŭ, and he encouraged the numerous
quacks who pretended to have discovered the elixir of life. The following
are specimens of his skill in poetry:--
“_The autumn blast drives
the white scud in the sky, Leaves fade, and wild geese sweeping south meet
the eye; The scent of late flowers fills the soft air above. My heart
full of thoughts of the lady I love. In the river the barges for
revel-carouse Are lined by white waves which break over their
bows; Their oarsmen keep time to the piping and
drumming.... Yet joy is as naught Alloyed by the
thought That youth slips away and that old age is coming._”
The next
lines were written upon the death of a harem favourite, to whom he was fondly
attached:--
“_The sound of rustling silk is stilled, With dust the
marble courtyard filled; No footfalls echo on the floor, Fallen leaves
in heaps block up the door.... For she, my pride, my lovely one, is
lost, And I am left, in hopeless anguish tossed._”
A good many
anonymous poems have come down to us from the first century B.C., and some of
these contain here and there quaint and pleasing conceits, as, for
instance--
“_Man reaches scarce a hundred, yet his tears Would
fill a lifetime of a thousand years._”
The following is a poem of this
period, the author of which is unknown:--
“_Forth from the eastern
gate my steeds I drive, And lo! a cemetery meets my view; Aspens
around in wild luxuriance thrive, The road is fringed with fir and pine and
yew. Beneath my feet lie the forgotten dead, Wrapped in a twilight of
eternal gloom; Down by the Yellow Springs their earthy bed, And
everlasting silence is their doom. How fast the lights and shadows come and
go! Like morning dew our fleeting life has passed; Man, a poor
traveller on earth below, Is gone, while brass and stone can still
outlast. Time is inexorable, and in vain Against his might the holiest
mortal strives; Can we then hope this precious boon to gain, By
strange elixirs to prolong our lives?... Oh, rather quaff good liquor while
we may, And dress in silk and satin every day!_”
[Sidenote: THE LADY
PAN]
Women now begin to appear in Chinese literature. The Lady PAN was
for a long time chief favourite of the Emperor who ruled China B.C. 32-6. So
devoted was his Majesty that he even wished her to appear alongside of him in
the Imperial chariot. Upon which she replied, “Your handmaid has heard that
wise rulers of old were always accompanied by virtuous ministers, but never
that they drove out with women by their side.” She was ultimately supplanted
by a younger and more beautiful rival, whereupon she forwarded to the Emperor
one of those fans, round or octagonal frames of bamboo with silk
stretched over them,[9] which in this country are called
“fire-screens,” inscribed with the following lines:--
“_O fair white
silk, fresh from the weaver’s loom, Clear as the frost, bright as the
winter snow-- See! friendship fashions out of thee a fan, Round as the
round moon shines in heaven above, At home, abroad, a close companion
thou, Stirring at every move the grateful gale. And yet I fear, ah me!
that autumn chills, Cooling the dying summer’s torrid rage, Will see
thee laid neglected on the shelf, All thought of bygone days, like them
bygone._”
The phrase “autumn fan” has long since passed into the
language, and is used figuratively of a deserted
wife.
FOOTNOTE:
[9] The folding fan, invented by the Japanese, was
not known in China until the eleventh century A.D., when it was
introduced through Korea.
CHAPTER
III
HISTORY--LEXICOGRAPHY
[Sidenote: SSŬ-MA CH’IEN]
So
far as China is concerned, the art of writing history may be said to have
been created during the period under review. SSŬ-MA CH’IEN, the so-called
Father of History, was born about B.C. 145. At the age of ten he was already
a good scholar, and at twenty set forth upon a round of travel which carried
him to all parts of the empire. In B.C. 110 his father died, and he stepped
into the hereditary post of grand astrologer. After devoting some time and
energy to the reformation of the calendar, he now took up the historical work
which had been begun by his father, and which was ultimately given to the
world as the Historical Record. It is a history of China from the earliest
ages down to about one hundred years before the Christian era, in one hundred
and thirty chapters, arranged under five headings, as follows:--(1)
Annals of the Emperors; (2) Chronological Tables; (3) Eight chapters on
Rites, Music, the Pitch-pipes, the Calendar, Astrology, Imperial
Sacrifices, Watercourses, and Political Economy; (4) Annals of the Feudal
Nobles; and (5) Biographies of many of the eminent men of the period,
which covers nearly three thousand years. In such estimation is this
work justly held that its very words have been counted, and found to
number 526,500 in all. It must be borne in mind that these characters
were, in all probability, scratched with a stylus on bamboo tablets, and
that previous to this there was no such thing as a history on a general
and comprehensive plan; in fact, nothing beyond mere local annals in
the style of the Spring and Autumn.
Since the Historical Record, every
dynasty has had its historian, their works in all cases being formed upon the
model bequeathed by Ssŭ-ma Ch’ien. The Twenty-four Dynastic Histories of
China were produced in 1747 in a uniform series bound up in 219 large
volumes, and together show a record such as can be produced by no other
country in the world.
The following are specimens of Ssŭ-ma Ch’ien’s
style:--
(1.) “When the House of Han arose, the evils of their
predecessors had not passed away. Husbands still went off to the wars. The
old and the young were employed in transporting food. Production was almost
at a standstill, and money became scarce. So much so, that even the Son
of Heaven had not carriage-horses of the same colour; the highest
civil and military authorities rode in bullock-carts, and the people at
large knew not where to lay their heads.
“At this epoch, the coinage
in use was so heavy and cumbersome that the people themselves started a new
issue at a fixed standard of value. But the laws were too lax, and it was
impossible to prevent grasping persons from coining largely, buying largely,
and then holding against a rise in the market. The consequence was that
prices went up enormously. Rice sold at 10,000 _cash_ per picul; a horse cost
100 ounces of silver. But by and by, when the empire was settling down
to tranquillity, his Majesty Kao Tsu gave orders that no trader
should wear silk nor ride in a carriage; besides which, the imposts
levied upon this class were greatly increased, in order to keep them
down. Some years later these restrictions were withdrawn; still,
however, the descendants of traders were disqualified from holding any
office connected with the State.
“Meanwhile, certain levies were made
on a scale calculated to meet the exigencies of public expenditure; while the
land-tax and customs revenue were regarded by all officials, from the Emperor
downwards, as their own personal emolument. Grain was forwarded by water to
the capital for the use of the officials there, but the quantity did
not amount to more than a few hundred thousand piculs every
year.
“Gradually the coinage began to deteriorate and light coins
to circulate; whereupon another issue followed, each piece being
marked ‘half an ounce.’ But at length the system of private issues led to
serious abuses, resulting first of all in vast sums of money accumulating in
the hands of individuals; finally, in rebellion, until the country was
flooded with the coinage of the rebels, and it became necessary to enact laws
against any such issues in the future.
“At this period the Huns were
harassing our northern frontier, and soldiers were massed there in large
bodies; in consequence of which food became so scarce that the authorities
offered certain rank and titles of honour to those who would supply a given
quantity of grain. Later on, drought ensued in the west, and in order to meet
necessities of the moment, official rank was again made a marketable
commodity, while those who broke the laws were allowed to commute their
penalties by money payments. And now horses began to reappear in
official stables, and in palace and hall signs of an ampler luxury were
visible once more.
“Thus it was in the early days of the dynasty,
until some seventy years after the accession of the House of Han. The empire
was then at peace. For a long time there had been neither flood nor drought,
and a season of plenty had ensued. The public granaries were well stocked;
the Government treasuries were full. In the capital, strings of _cash_
were piled in myriads, until the very strings rotted, and their tale
could no longer be told. The grain in the Imperial storehouses grew
mouldy year by year. It burst from the crammed granaries, and lay about
until it became unfit for human food. The streets were thronged with
horses belonging to the people, and on the highroads whole droves were to
be seen, so that it became necessary to prohibit the public use of
mares. Village elders ate meat and drank wine. Petty government
clerkships and the like lapsed from father to son; the higher offices of
State were treated as family heirlooms. For there had gone abroad a spirit
of self-respect and of reverence for the law, while a sense of charity
and of duty towards one’s neighbour kept men aloof from disgrace and
shame.
“At length, under lax laws, the wealthy began to use their riches
for evil purposes of pride and self-aggrandisement and oppression of
the weak. Members of the Imperial family received grants of land,
while from the highest to the lowest, every one vied with his neighbour
in lavishing money on houses, and appointments, and apparel,
altogether beyond the limit of his means. Such is the everlasting law of
the sequence of prosperity and decay.
“Then followed extensive
military preparations in various parts of the empire; the establishment of a
tradal route with the barbarians of the south-west, for which purpose
mountains were hewn through for many miles. The object was to open up the
resources of those remote districts, but the result was to swamp the
inhabitants in hopeless ruin. Then, again, there was the subjugation of
Korea; its transformation into an Imperial dependency; with other troubles
nearer home. There was the ambush laid for the Huns, by which we
forfeited their alliance, and brought them down upon our northern
frontier. Nothing, in fact, but wars and rumours of wars from day to
day. Money was constantly leaving the country. The financial stability
of the empire was undermined, and its impoverished people were
driven thereby into crime. Wealth had been frittered away, and its
renewal was sought in corruption. Those who brought money in their
hands received appointments under government. Those who could pay
escaped the penalties of their guilt. Merit had to give way to money.
Shame and scruples of conscience were laid aside. Laws and punishments
were administered with severer hand. From this period must be dated the
rise and growth of official venality.” |
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