Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/429

 tion, a place is assigned to poetesses, of whom FANG WEI-I would perhaps be a favourable example. She came from a good family, and was but newly married to a promis- ing young official when the latter died, and left her a sorrowing and childless widow. Light came to her in the darkness, and disregarding the entreaties of her father and mother, she decided to become a nun, and devote the remainder of her life to the service of Buddha. These are her farewell lines :

" 'Tis common talk how partings sadden life :

There are no partings for us after death. But let that pass / 7, now no more a wife, Will face fate's issues to my latest breath.

" The north wind whistles thro 1 the mulberry grove.

Daily and nightly making moan for mej I look up to the shifting sky above, No little prattler smiling on my knee.

" Life's sweetest boon is after all to die. . ..

My weeping parents still are loth to yield j Yet east and west the callow fledglings fly, And autumn's herbage wanders far afield.

" What will life bring to me an I should stay f

What will death bring to me an I should go ? These thoughts surge through me in the light of day ^ And make me conscious that at last I know"

One of the greatest of the scholars of the present dynasty was YUAN YUAN (1764-1849). He took his third degree in 1789, and at the final examination the aged Emperor Ch'ien Lung was so struck with his talents that he exclaimed, " Who would have thought that, after pass- ing my eightieth year, I should find another such man as this one ?" He then held many high offices in succes- sion, including the post of Governor of Chehkiang, in

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