Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/448

 436 CHINESE LITERATURE

end of rope ? " " Well," answered the man, " the fact is that there was a bullock tied to the other end."

A man asked a friend to stay and have tea. Un- fortunately there was no tea in the house, so a servant was sent to borrow some. Before the latter had re- turned the water was already boiling, and it became necessary to pour in more cold water. This happened several times, and at length the boiler was overflowing but no tea had come. Then the man's wife said to her husband, " As we don't seem likely to get any tea, you had better offer your friend a bath ! "

A monkey, brought after death before the King of Purgatory, begged to be reborn on earth as a man. " In that case," said the King, " all the hairs must be plucked out of your body," and he ordered the attendant demons to pull them out forthwith. At the very first hair, however, the monkey screeched out, and said he could not bear the pain. "You brute!" roared the King, " how are you to become a man if you cannot even part with a single hair ? "

A braggart chess-player played three games with a stranger and lost them all. Next day a friend asked him how he had come off. " Oh," said he, " I didn't win the first game, and my opponent didn't lose the second. As for the third, I wanted to draw it, but he wouldn't agree."

The barest sketch of Chinese literature would hardly be complete without some allusion to its proverbs and maxims. These are not only to be found largely scat- tered throughout every branch of writing, classical and popular, but may also be studied in collections, generally under a metrical form. Thus the Ming Hsien Chi, to

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