Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/110

 98 CHINESE LITERATURE

The roses on her cheek blush bright,

Her rounded arm is dazzling white;

A singing-girl in early life,

And now a careless roufs wife. ...

A^ if he does not mind his own,

H II 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 / "

LlU HiNG (d. B.C. 157) was the son by a concubine of the founder of the Han dynasty, and succeeded in B.C. i Se- 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 follow- ing is a poem which he wrote on the death of his illustri- ous father, who, if we can accept as genuine the remains attributed to him, was himself also a poet :

" / 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, a/one, Of solace bereft, save to weep and to moan.

u The deer on the hillside caressingly bleat, And offer the grass for their young ones to eat, While birds of the air to their nes flings bring meat

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