Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/171

Rh thence are called cheng (jE)-<ao, correct ways. In popular use, however, they are generally called kung (^)-^ao, or Tribute roads; and cheng-tao is, in common speech, simply the highway to a place. It is contrasted which ch'a {^ytao and hsie (^ytaoy byways and wrong ways ; but the last term is mostly used in a figurative manner.

A flight of steps or a stairway is chie {^)-tao or ting (jg) tao. The latter term, however, is used only of stone steps, and it is applied to the spiral stairways of pagodas, to steps cut in rocks, and to the stone pathways made up mountains. A suspension bridge which connects two precipices or two sides of a river is sometimes called chan-fang-kou [^ "fi §Bj)-^ao, or chain-bridge. Another name for the same is chan {^ytao, or plankway, which is also used to denote the wooden bridges laid across streams. This term is well known from the expression shao-chueh-olian- ^^^ (j^ ^ S M)) ^^ ^^^^ and cut away the wooden bridges, that is, over which one has crossed. The phrase dates from the coming of Han Kao-tsu, and denotes an irretrievable committal to a certain course, conduct which shews that there is a determination not to go back. As a synonym of chan-tao we find ko (^ or ^^-tao often used, and ko-tao is also the name of. a cluster of stars in Cassiopeia. It is applied, moreover, sometimes to a gallery which spans a court or square and connects the upper chambers of two opposite houses. But the more common term for such a passage is fu-tao. The word fu is found written ;}g, g, and ^. Of these, the first points to the wooden structure of the passage, and the others to the fact that it is additional and parallel to one already existing. The third character, which is by some considered to be the correct one, denotes originally a wadded or lined garment, and so a fu-tao is described as one passage above another. The Ming-t*ang and the A-f ang palaces of old times hsid fu-tao which are celebrated in Chinese literature. This term is applied also to the winding, cork-screw paths which seem to return on themselves, made on the slopes of mountains and leading to their summits. The poet Su Tung-p'o speaks of those on Mount Li as connecting the clouds and reaching to the