Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/143

 Highways of traffic ran north and south ; sounds of crowing cocks and barking dogs were heard around; the dress of the people who passed along or were at work in the fields was of a strange cut ; while young and old alike appeared to be contented and happy."

He is told that the ancestors of these people had taken refuge there some five centuries before to escape the troublous days of the " First Emperor," and that there they had remained, cut off completely from the rest of the human race. On his returning home the story is noised abroad, and the Governor sends out men to find this strange region, but the fisherman is never able to find it again. The gods had permitted the poet to go back for a brief span to the peach-blossom days of his youth.

One critic speaks of T'ao Ch'ien as "drunk with the fumes of spring." Another says, " His heart was fixed upon loyalty and duty, while his body was content with leisure and repose. His emotions were real, his scenery was real, his facts were real, and his thoughts were real. His workmanship was so exceedingly fine as to appear natural ; his adze and chisel (labor limae) left no traces behind."

Much of his poetry is political, and bristles with allusions to events which are now forgotten, mixed up with thoughts and phrases which are greatly admired by his countrymen. Thus, when he describes meeting with an old friend in a far-off land, such a passage as this would be heavily scored by editor or critic with marks of commendation :

" Ere words be spoke, the heart is drunk; What need to call for ivine ? "

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