Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/336

 324 CHINESE LITERATURE

puzzle the sarcastic young lady. However, in the time that it takes to drink a cup of tea, she had thrown off the following lines :

" Cunningly made to look like a bird, It cheats fools and little children. It has a body of bamboo, light and thin, And flowers painted on it, as though something wonderful. Blown by the wind it swaggers in the sky, Bound by a string it is unable to move. DJ not laugh at its sham feet, If it fell, you would see only a dry and empty frame?

All this was intended in ridicule of Mr. Sung himself and of his personal appearance, and is a fair sample of what the reader may expect throughout.

The Erh Tou Mei, or "Twice Flowering Plum-trees," belongs to the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and is by an unknown author. It is a novel with a purpose, being apparently designed to illustrate the beauty of filial piety, the claims of friendship, and duty to one's neigh- bour in general. Written in a simple style, with no wealth of classical allusion to soothe the feelings of the pedant, it contains several dramatic scenes, and altogether forms a good panorama of Chinese everyday life. Two heroes are each in love with two heroines, and just as in the Yti Chiao Li, each hero marries both. There is a slender thread of fact running through the tale, the action of which is placed in the eighth century, and several of the characters are actually historical. One of the four lovely heroines, in order to keep peace be- tween China and the Tartar tribes which are continually harrying the borders, decides to sacrifice herself on the altar of patriotism and become the bride of the Khan.

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