Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/249

RV 244 (LI PO) the tenets of his religion were firmly opposed to wine, enjoyed a good spree. He was a mournful, lovable character. After five cups, he wept in his wine.

Li Chin, the fourth member of the party, had sharpened his ears until he could hear a brewer's cart a li away. He liked nothing better than to turn his winecup bottom up, and forever regretted that it was not possible for him to own a wine-spring.

The handsomest of all the Eight Immortals was Ts'u Tsung-chih, who had succeeded to the hereditary Dukedom of his father who had been ennobled by Empress Wu How. Ts'u Tsung-chih had been an official at Nanking until he fell into disfavor. His banishment was not practical, but absolute. But he did not care. He hated crowds, longing for solitude. Never had he met anyone who more closely typified his ideal than Li Po. He was like a firm young tree as he stood upon a hilltop, braced against the East Wind's force.

Chang Hsü, the last member of the coterie, was also a poet. He had come from Soochow in Kangsu. He was so talented that even Tu Fu had mentioned him in his poems. He was a calligraphist of distinction. Drunk or sober, he could turn out such magnificent grass characters that he had won for himself the title of the "Divine Grassist." But he also was called Chang, the Madman, because when excited by wine he lost all sense of decorum. Even in the presence of Princes, he tossed his cap into the air and roared with merriment until the very heavens shook. But now, in the tavern, he was not more boisterous than the others save only RV 244 (244)