Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/240

 228 CHINESE LITERATURE

place is, under ordinary circumstances, much like other people. But he who at moments of great trial does not flinch, he is not commonplace.' "

CHENG CH'IAO (1108-1166) began his literary career in studious seclusion, cut off from all human inter- course. Then he spent some time in visiting various places of interest, devoting himself to searching out marvels, investigating antiquities, and reading (and re- membering) every book that came in his way. In 1149 he was summoned to an audience, and received an honorary post. He was then sent home to copy out his History of China, which covered a period from about B.C. 2800 to A.D. 600. A fine edition of this work, in forty-six large volumes, was published in 1749 by Imperial command, with a preface by the Emperor Ch'ien Lung. He also wrote essays and poetry, besides a treatise in which he showed that the inscriptions on the Stone Drums, now in Peking, belong rather to the latter half of the third century B.C. than to the tenth or eleventh century B.C., as usually accepted.

The name of CHU Hsi (1130-1200) is a household word throughout the length and breadth of literary China. He graduated at nineteen, and entered upon a highly successful official career. He apparently had a strong leaning towards Buddhism some say that he actually became a Buddhist priest ; at any rate, he soon saw the error of his ways, and gave himself up com- pletely to a study of the orthodox doctrine. He was a most voluminous -writer. In addition to his revision of the history of Ssu-ma Kuang, which, under the title of Tung Chien Kang Mu, is still regarded as the

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