Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/353

 in a previous state of existence ; ' and thus I referred my non-success in this life to the influence of a destiny sur- viving from the last. I have been tossed hither and thither in the direction of the ruling wind, like a flower falling in filthy places ; but the six paths l of transmigra- tion are inscrutable indeed, and I have no right to com- plain. As it is, midnight finds me with an expiring lamp, while the wind whistles mournfully without; and over my cheerless table I piece together my tales, vainly hoping to produce a sequel to the Infernal Regions? With a bumper I stimulate my pen, yet I only succeed thereby in ' venting my excited feelings/ and as I thus commit my thoughts to writing, truly I am an object worthy of commiseration. Alas ! I am but the bird that, dreading the winter frost, finds no shelter in the tree, the autumn insect that chirps to the moon and hugs the door for warmth. For where are they who know me ? They are ' in the bosky grove and at the frontier pass ' 3 wrapped in an impenetrable gloom ! "

For many years these " Strange Stories " circulated only in manuscript. P'u Sung-ling, as we are told in a colophon by his grandson to the first edition, was too poor to meet the heavy expense of block-cutting ; and it was not until so late as 1740, when the author must have been already for some time a denizen of the dark land

1 The six g&ti or conditions of existence, viz., angels, men, demons, hungry devils, brute beasts, and tortured sinners.

3 The work of a well-known writer, named Lin I-ch'ing, who flourished during the Sung dynasty.

8 The great poet Tu Fu dreamt that his greater predecessor, Li T'ai-po, appeared to him, "coining when the maple-grove was in darkness, and returning while the frontier pass was still obscured," that is, at night, when no one could see him ; the meaning being that he never came at all, and that those " who know me (P'u Sung-ling) " are equally non-existent.

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