Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/427

 peacock, parrot, thrush, kite, quail, mainah, swallow, deer, hare, monkey, dog, cat, squirrel, goldfish first mentioned by Su Shih,

" Upon the bridge the li-velong day I stand and watch the goldfish play "

bee, butterfly, glowworm, &c. Altogether there is much to be learnt from this Chinese White of Selborne, and the reader lays down the book feeling that the writer is not far astray when he says, " If a home has not a garden and an old tree, I see not whence the everyday joys of life are to come."

CHAO I (1727-1814) is said to have known several tens of characters when only three years old, the age at which John Stuart Mill believed that he began Greek. It was not, however, until 1761 that he took his final degree, appearing second on the list. He was really first, but the Emperor put Wang Chieh over his head, in order to encourage men from Shensi, to which province the latter belonged. That Wang Chieh is remembered at all must be set down to the above episode, and not to the two volumes of essays which he left behind him. Chao I wrote a history of the wars of the present dynasty, a collection of notes on the current topics of his day, historical critiques, and other works. He was also a poet, contributing a large volume of verse, from which the following sample of his art is taken :

" Man is indeed of heavenly birth, Though seeming earthy of the earth; The sky in but a denser pall Of the thin air that covers all. Just as this air, so is that sky; Why call this low, and call that high ?

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