Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/304



ING HUANG lived in a Golden Love Boat, gliding tranquilly along in a river of complacency. He was little concerned with the affairs of State, devoting all his time to Yang Kuei-fei. Usually they retired early, and she read to him stories which she had copied with her own hand from the "Works of Lieh-tzu."

Perched on the foot of the Emperor's bed, gowned in soft red clinging silk, with hibiscus blossoms in her hair, she would read in a voice that stirred his blood, "There was once a man of the State of Ts'in, named P'ang, who had a son. The boy, when quite little, was extremely clever, and showed signs of an understanding beyond his years; but when he grew up he became crazy. If he heard anybody sing, he thought he was crying; he took white objects for black; perfumes he thought were stenches; if he ate sweet things, he imagined they were bitter; bad conduct he approved as good; in fact, whatever he thought about in the whole world—water, fire, heat, or cold—his ideas were always the exact reverse of the truth.

"One day a man named Yang said to the lad's father, 'The Superior man of Lu (Confucius) has a multitude of resources; he will surely be able to effect a cure. Why not ask his help?' So the father set out for the State of Lu; but on his way he had to pass through the State of Ch'ên, and there he fell in with Lao-tzu, to whom he