Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/92



ING HUANG was a patron of every artistic enterprise whether it was concerned with poetry, painting, calligraphy, printing, music or religion. He classified religion in the same group because to live righteously is a fine art. Religion is the thing to which man clings when he is frightened, though he may be careless with his gods at all other times. The T'angs fought magnificently. Cowardice was a word unknown and yet they held righteousness above valor. They were alert and highly cultured. They believed that beauty was born with the earth and that poetry was the voice of the heart. It was as natural for a man to quote poetry as to breathe, and none so poor that he could not learn new songs. In every lilac bush, there was a lyric, a song of winter snow like willow-flowers falling, or almonds blooming in ecstasy for spring. Enchanting indeed were the mornings, the sun-splashed green hills, the clear, wind-swept sky and a supreme faith in their Emperor who watched over them like an elder brother. Tranquilly they went about their tasks, strong in the belief of the ages that evil cannot touch the righteous man.

Such was the case with Wu Tao-tzu, the most celebrated portrait painter of all China. He was well-educated, devout, with amazing memory. Once when Ming Huang sent him to reproduce the beautiful scenery of a certain river in Szechwan, he returned without