Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/144

98 indifferent matter; it is a real weakness. ''This ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone!. [sic]"''

Last of all I wish to point out to you here the most important quality of all, in the Chinese feminine ideal, the quality which prominently distinguishes her from the feminine ideal of all other people or nations ancient or modern. This quality in the women in China, it is true, is common to the feminine ideal of every people or nation with any pretension to civilization, but this quality, I want to say here, developed in the Chinese feminine ideal to such a degree of perfection as you will find it nowhere else in the world. This quality of which I speak, is described by the two Chinese words yu hsien (幽閒) which, in the quotation I gave above from the "Lessons for Women," by Lady T'sao,—I translated as modesty and cheerfulness. The Chinese word yu literally means retired, secluded, occult and the word hsien  literally means "at ease or leisure." For the Chinese word yu,—the English "modesty, bashfulness" only gives you an idea of its meaning. The German word  comes nearer to it. But perhaps the French  comes nearest to it of all. This pudeur, I may say here, this bashfulness, the quality expressed by the Chinese word yu (幽) is the essence of all womanly qualities. The more a woman has this quality of pudeur developed in her, the more she has of womanliness,—of femininity, in fact, the more she is a perfect or ideal woman. When on the contrary a woman loses this quality