Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/246

 234 CHINESE LITERATURE

Another poet, YANG I (974-1030), was unable to speak as a child, until one day, being taken to the top of a pagoda, he suddenly burst out with the following lines:

" Upon this tall pagoda 's peak

My hand can nigh the stars enclose; I dare not raise my voice to speak. For fear of startling God's repose"

Mention has already been made of SHAO YUNG (1011- 1077) * n connection with Chu Hsi and classical scholar- ship. He was a great traveller, and an enthusiast in the cause of learning. He denied himself a stove in winter and a fan in summer. For thirty years he did not use a pillow, nor had he even a mat to sleep on. The following specimen of his verse seems, however, to belie his character s an ascetic :

" Fair flowers from above in my goblet are shining, And add by reflection an infinite zest; Through two generations I've lived unrepining, IVhilefour mighty rulers have sunk to their rest.

" My body in health has done nothing to spite me, And sweet are the moments which pass rfer my head; But now, with this wine and these flowers to delight me, How shall I keep sober and get home to bed? "

Shao Yung was a great authority on natural pheno- mena, the explanation of which he deduced from prin- ciples found in the Book of Changes. On one occasion he was strolling about with some friends when he heard the goatsucker's cry. He immediately became depressed, and said, "When good government is about to prevail, the magnetic current flows from north to south ; when bad government is about to prevail, it flows from south to north, and birds feel its influence first of all things. Now hitherto this bird has not been seen at Lo-yang ;

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