Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/64

 5? CHINESE LITERATURE

excess ? " After some further colloquy, the fisherman rowed away; and Ch'ii Yuan, clasping a large stone in his arms, plunged into the river and was seen no more. This took place on the fifth of the fifth moon ; and ever afterwards the people of Ch'u commemorated the day by an annual festival, when offerings of rice in bamboo tubes were cast into the river as a sacrifice to the spirit of their great hero. Such is the origin of the modern Dragon-Boat Festival, which is supposed to be a search for the body of Ch'ii Yuan.

A good specimen of his style will be found in the following short poem, entitled "The Genius of the Mountain." It is one of " nine songs " which, together with a number of other pieces in a similar strain, have been classed under the general heading, Li Sao, as above.

" Methinks there is a Genius of the hills, clad in wistaria, girdled with ivy, with smiling lips, of witching mien, riding on the red pard, wild cats galloping in the rear, reclining in a chariot, with banners of cassia, cloaked with the orchid, girt with azalea, culling the perfume of sweet flowers to leave behind a memory in the heart. But dark is the grove wherein I dwell. No light of day reaches it ever. The path thither is danger- ous and difficult to climb. Alone I stand on the hill-top, while the clouds float beneath my feet, and all around is wrapped in gloom.

"Gently blows the east wind ; softly falls the rain. In my joy I become oblivious of home ; for who in my decline would honour me now ?

" I pluck the larkspur on the hillside, amid the chaos of rock and tangled vine. I hate him who has made me an outcast, who has now no leisure to think of me.

" I drink from the rocky spring. I shade myself

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