{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_75089/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_75089","id":"gutenberg_75089","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75089","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Folklore -- China"],"text":"GLEANINGS\n                         FROM CHINESE FOLKLORE\n\n\n                                   BY\n                           NELLIE N. RUSSELL\n\n     With Some of Her Stories of Life in China, to which are added\n      Memorial Sketches of the Author from Associates and Friends\n\n                              COMPILED BY\n                             MARY H. PORTER\n\n\n                        New York Chicago Toronto\n                       Fleming H. Revell Company\n                          London and Edinburgh\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTo Miss Russell\u2019s fellow-workers, who still have the joy of service in\nthe great old-new land which she loved; and who tread the unfamiliar\nways with more strength and courage, because in many of them she was\nthe Pathfinder, this little volume is affectionately dedicated by\n\n\n    M. H. P.\n\n                                                   La Mesa, California,\n                                                         January, 1915.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nIt was in the autumn of 1890 that I sat one evening looking into the\nface of a young woman who was passing through Tung-chow on her way to\nher new field of work in Peking. A few words about her work in the past\nexplained the sadness of the brown eyes which had already seen many\nlife tragedies in her five years of city mission work, but their merry\nsparkle when she entered into the happy flow of talk about her showed\nthat her sympathies were as full and rich for joy as for sorrow. Hers\nwas one of those rare natures in which all the lives about them are\nrelived. Such lives are intense, but their earth span is short.\n\nBefore many years Miss Russell knew the life histories of most of the\nthousand Christians connected with the Peking Congregational churches\nand outstations, knew them with her heart as well as her head. The\ntimepiece was never made which could tell her that the night hours were\npassing when she sat in a humble, dirty home in a far-off outstation\nbeside some toil-worn, heartsore woman, listening to the details of the\nsordid daily life, and the wrecked hopes, then resurrecting hope, and\nennobling life by linking it with the Divine life. She took no note of\nthe lapse either of time or strength when, in her city home, she\nentertained guests of high or low degree with equal courtesy and charm.\nHers was the gift of making even the brief, formal call an opportunity\nfor speaking the word which might lead to an upward look or an outward\nvision.\n\nThe Chinese pastor came to Miss Russell with his problems, also the\nchild with her new toy. She loved flowers, animals, and children, the\nlatter with the passionate love of a mother-heart. One who watched her\ntaking a little dead goldfish out of the water said, \u201cDon\u2019t keep\ngoldfish any more, it hurts you so when they die.\u201d But the things which\nhurt could no more be put outside of that wide-embracing life than\ncould the things which gave a thrill of joy, or enraptured her with a\nsense of the beautiful.\n\nThe tragedy of 1900 brought to one of such wideness and depth of\nfriendship and intimate knowledge a sorrow whose outward tokens were\nwhitening hair and a physically weakened constitution. The first\nmassacres in the country brought refugees to Peking, to whom she\nministered day and night. In the British Legation she went to the\nhospital to nurse wounded soldiers when she needed herself to be\ncarried there on a stretcher. Naturally sensitive not only to pain but\nto danger and to all that was unsightly or repulsive, her sufferings\nduring those two months cannot be measured. The year that followed was\na drawn-out agony, as she heard the stories of martyrdoms, listened\nwith tense sympathy to the tales of returned refugees, gathered orphans\nand widows into schools, and with a faith that never faltered planned\nto build up the waste places. She might indeed have said, with Paul, \u201cI\ndie daily.\u201d\n\nMiss Russell was large in her plans as well as in her feelings. The\npast could not chain her, the present could not bind her. A Bible\nschool for women rose in her future, and after it became a fact, and\nothers were doing most of the routine work, she passed on to work into\na reality dreams of a school for women of the higher classes, with\nlecture courses, mothers\u2019 clubs, and training for social service, a\nwork which for many years to come cannot reach the proportions of her\nvision. There could be no more fitting memorial for Miss Russell than\nbuildings which would help to make her dreams come true. If Mark\nHopkins, one student, and a log made a college, Miss Russell, a Chinese\nwoman, and a tiny Chinese room made a Social Settlement.\n\nMiss Russell was not always logical and judicial. Her virtues carried\ntheir dear earthly defects with them. From those who disappointed her\nhope after long patience of love she might recoil into an attitude\nwhich seemed like prejudice. Sometimes she walked so far with others\ninto the Valley of Baca that no strength was left to make it a well.\n\nIt might seem that the outpouring of her life was too lavish, and so\ninjudicious. But who knows? The impulse which went upward in prayer and\noutward in loving service had its fruition in a clearer vision of the\nearth mission of the Master, a vision for herself, and a vision for the\nthousands with whom she came in touch. And China needs nothing more\nthan she needs this vision.\n\nFor those who find their richest fruition in deeds accomplished, we\ncrave the threescore years and ten, crowded with achievement. Those\nwhose gifts lie in loving and befriending may sooner rest from their\nlabours, for their works do follow them, and love and friendship are\ndeathless. Those of us in Peking who walk where Miss Russell\u2019s feet\nhave trod still see the spiritual blossoming of that beautiful life.\n\n\n    Luella Miner.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n    An Appreciation of Nellie N. Russell\n      By Charles Frederic Goss, her pastor in Chicago.          13\n    Nellie N. Russell (Historical)                              16\n    Miss Nellie N. Russell\u2019s Unique Work\n      An Appreciation\u2014Mrs. Chauncey Goodrich.                   31\n    Miss Russell\u2019s Funeral Service                              41\n\n    A Tartar Joan of Arc                                        47\n    A Daughter of the Orient                                    52\n    The Wild Goose and the Sparrow                              56\n    A Chinese Hero\n        Han Hsin.                                               61\n    A Chinese Tea-House Story\n        Chi Hsiao Tang.                                         71\n    The Jade Treasure                                           82\n    Chinese Heroism                                             88\n    Literary Glory                                              92\n    How the Dog and Cat Came to Be Enemies                      98\n    A Daughter of the Present                                  106\n    T\u2019ang Sung\u2019s Journey to Get the Buddhist Classics          110\n    A Story of Old China                                       124\n\n    Notes                                                      169\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAN APPRECIATION OF NELLIE N. RUSSELL\n\nBy Charles Frederic Goss,\n\nHer Pastor in Chicago\n\n\nIt is common enough to find persons endowed with one, two, or even\nthree of those four great elemental qualities out of which the noblest\nsouls are made\u2014an inviolable conscience, profound intellect,\nirresistible will, and illimitable affections. But to meet a man or\nwoman having all is as moving as it is uncommon. Our Nellie Russell had\nall. For four years she was an inmate of our home and, during all her\nremarkable career as a missionary in China, we kept in the closest\npossible touch with her and her work. As a result of this intimate\nacquaintance we learned to look upon her as an unique and even\nwonderful woman. Life took hold of her with tremendous power and so did\nshe of life. To see all things clearly, to feel her solemn\nresponsibility to every soul that crossed her path, to act with\ndecision and determination in every emergency, was as natural for her\nas to breathe. Her great dark eyes were at some times like deep wells\nat the bottom of which truth lay, at others like stars emitting a\ntender light, and at others like hot coals flashing fires of generous\nand righteous wrath.\n\nRighteousness never went unpraised nor unrighteousness unrebuked or\nunscourged by Nellie Russell. She loved the good and she hated the evil\nof life with equal ardor. Her sympathy for those in trouble cost her a\nsort of agony, her love for her friends was an undying passion. When\nshe went to China she took its great people into her very heart. All\nmen, women, and children were brothers and sisters to her, and to spend\nand be spent for them was a spiritual hunger.\n\nDuring a memorable week of one of her vacations spent in our summer\ncottage we were made to marvel at her insight into human nature and\ninto the great problems of life. As we listened to her modest story of\nher experience in the siege of Peking, or heard her merry, ringing\nlaugh whenever the ludicrous elements in social intercourse or\nsurroundings appeared; when, in our little motor-boat, we saw her great\neyes beam with delight at some fresh form of nature\u2019s loveliness and\nheard her exclaim with irrepressible enthusiasm as we floated here and\nthere among the islands, \u201cOh, it is as beautiful as the Orient!\u201d we\nseemed to be in contact with the very soul of the universe in some\npeculiar manner.\n\nAnd when we heard of her death! oh, that was hard indeed! Again and\nagain we had written her that there was a room in our home reserved for\nher perpetual use. It was a cherished hope to have her with us when her\nwork was done, but it was too good and great a hope for realization\nhere.\n\nIf this seems like overpraise to you, just let it go at that. You did\nnot know her, or you did not appreciate her. We never heard her\noverpraised! She has ever been and ever more must be a pure, inspiring\npresence in our lives.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNELLIE N. RUSSELL\n\nHistorical\n\n\nThe enduring charm of a rich personality is ever found to be in\ndevotion to a chosen cause. Such a personality is here presented in a\nbrief study of an earnest life of effort and high purpose.\n\nNellie Naomi Russell was born in Ontonagon, Michigan, March 31, 1862.\nThe family removed to Wisconsin when she was very young, and there her\nfather died when she was about eight years of age. She was the second\nof four children whom the widowed mother took to Vermont to live with\none of their uncles. He also was soon taken away, and the family\nremoved to Ludlow, in that state. Nellie, however, spent much of her\ntime at West Rutland. Here she united with the church, and attended\nschool, until her mother\u2019s death in 1877. At this time the eldest\nsister, Janet, was in Michigan, and the following spring Nellie, with\nher brother William, joined her there, while the younger sister\nremained with their guardian, Dr. D. F. Coolidge, in Ludlow.\n\nNellie attended school in Ontonagon, but she longed to return to New\nEngland. Dr. Coolidge, at her earnest request, advanced the money for\nher travelling expenses from the funds of a small legacy left her by\nher uncle, on condition that it should be returned to the fund from her\nfirst earnings.\n\nIn the autumn of the year 1879, Nellie, although so young, taught a\ncountry school, boarding around from house to house, as was the custom\nat that time. The sum advanced to her was returned from her first\nearnings with the scrupulous integrity which, throughout her life,\nmarked all her business dealings. She won the admiration of the school\ndistrict by her industry and capacity for work and service both in\nschool and out.\n\nAt the close of the session she went to North Bennington, Vermont,\nwhere she spent two years in the family of Mrs. Coolidge\u2019s sister, Mrs.\nH. W. Spafford.\n\nAll this time her great desire had been to prepare herself for\nmissionary service. In order that she might get the education requisite\nfor it she toiled and saved until she was able to enter Northfield\nSeminary, which had just been founded by Mr. D. L. Moody. After the\nfirst year she was given a scholarship. With this as a help she was\nable to meet all other expenses by what she earned during vacations.\nAll she had received from the scholarship she later returned to the\ninstitution she had learned to love. At Northfield she spent four years\nin study and congenial work. During the last two years she roomed with\nLila Peabody, now Mrs. Edward F. Cragin of Brooklyn, New York, with\nwhom she formed a friendship, one of the most intimate and strongest of\nher life. It is to this friendship that we are indebted for the few\ndetails of the years between her entrance into the seminary and going\nto China. She was an eager, enthusiastic student and was recognized at\nonce by her companions as a leader, was made president of her class,\nand of the first missionary society formed among the pupils of the\nNorthfield Seminary.\n\nMrs. Cragin says of her, \u201cShe was of a deeply spiritual nature.\u201d I\nremember her telling me that from her early childhood she loved no\nstories so well as those of foreign missionaries, and that she hoped,\neven when a little girl, that some day she might become one.\n\nOne June morning, just before graduation, Mr. Moody took us for an\nearly drive. He told us of a plan he had for us to go together to\nChicago, to be pastor\u2019s assistants and Sunday-school workers in Mr.\nMoody\u2019s, the Chicago Avenue Church. The Rev. Charles F. Goss was the\npastor at that time. It seemed a large undertaking for two\ninexperienced young women to go from the little village of Northfield\nto the great city of Chicago, and to engage in such a work. But Mr.\nMoody felt confident of the results and assured us that we could do it,\nand so we made the venture.\n\nOur experiences the first winter were strangely new and varied. We\nworked under Dr. Goss\u2019s directions, calling upon church members and\nothers who we thought might be influenced to attend the services. We\nalso visited the sick and helped such as were in need in the\nneighbourhood.\n\nOur Sunday-school work was among the very poor, and in localities where\nwe went with not a little trepidation. Our custom was to select a\nstreet and to call from house to house, from family to family. We asked\nthe children of those visited to come to the Sunday-school, and gave\nthem cards telling them when and where to go. In many cases the parents\ncould not understand English, but, as the children practically lived on\nthe streets and so picked up its language, they understood us when we\nasked them to come and to bring others with them. In this way we\ngathered the children into Sunday-school, the boys into Miss Russell\u2019s\nclass and the girls into mine. Miss Russell soon had a class of one\nhundred and fifty or more boys. In connection with this there were\norganized evening classes. The help of young men, who taught the boys\ncarpentry and other kinds of manual work, was secured, and they were\nencouraged to seek other vocations than those of newspaper venders and\nboot-blacks. Some showed unusual talent, but had no opportunity for\nstudy or advancement. Miss Russell wrote to Mr. Moody with regard to\nthem and asked if an arrangement could be made by which the most\npromising could be admitted to Mt. Hermon. He gladly entered into the\nplan and carried out her wishes. A number of these boys thus entered\nMt. Hermon school and afterward took college courses. They were\naccompanied all the way upward by the sympathy, advice, and assistance\nof Miss Russell. She kept in touch with many of them all her life,\ncorresponding with them after going to China, and hunting them up\nduring her furloughs in this country.\n\nMiss Russell\u2019s great characteristics were, I think, the giving of\nherself unsparingly for others, and doing this with sympathy,\ntenderness, and love. One incident, among many which I recall,\nstrikingly illustrates this. During the anarchist riots in Chicago,\nwhen even men did not dare go into the disturbed neighbourhood, Miss\nRussell went without fear, and without protection, to the anarchist\nheadquarters to comfort the little old mother of one of the condemned\nmen.\n\nAfter five years of earnest, successful work in Chicago, Miss Russell,\nwell fitted by such training, felt that the time had come for her to go\nto the distant field, which she always had kept in view. The way was\nopened for her to enter the work in China under the Woman\u2019s Board of\nthe Interior in connection with the American Board of Foreign Missions.\nShe accepted the opportunity as the fruition of the hope and desire of\nchildhood, girlhood, and young womanhood, and in twenty-one years of\ndevoted service made \u201cgood proof of her ministry.\u201d\n\nThe record of the rare life of Miss Russell is in the hearts of many to\nwhom she was very dear. It is suggestive of some of her loveliest\nqualities that it has been difficult to secure anything beyond the bare\nhistorical facts with regard to her early years.\n\nThe brief outline, given by the only sister who survives her, Mrs. J.\nR. Branaman, and a lifelong friend, Mrs. D. F. Coolidge of Ludlow,\nVermont, show how heavy were the burdens of her youth and explain, in a\nmeasure, her peculiar and yearning sympathy for toilers struggling\nunder difficulties for an entrance into a larger intellectual and\nsocial life; for widowed mothers, caring for groups of children, and\nfor young students making their way with little aid through courses of\nstudy. Of her own early experiences she rarely spoke. In years of close\ncompanionship I learned little of them beyond the ever-recurring\nsuggestion of her rich inheritance from a father of deep religious\nfaith and a mother brave and tender, with the highest standards of\nduty. These so impressed her daughter that, in incidental ways, they\nwere often implied in the reasons given for her choice of lines of\nconduct.\n\nHer warmth of affection for her own was apparent in every mention of\nthem, and knowing this, one can realize what separation from them, even\nin childhood, meant to her. She truly \u201cBore the yoke in her youth\u201d and\nlearned to carry it so buoyantly, and walk under it with such\nelasticity of spirit, that one\u2019s memory of her is always that of\nlargeness and joy rather than of mere patience or resignation. She knew\nbetter than most of God\u2019s children how to delight in all the beautiful\nthings her Heavenly Father had placed in the earthly environment, and\nit was not until disease and sorrow had wasted her reserves of strength\nthat she began to speak often of the life beyond. To that she looked\nand for it she longed, not as rest from service but as larger\nopportunity and wider vision. The springs of her life deepened as the\nphysical resources were depleted, and we who were much with her during\nthe last years often realized that she drank from celestial fountains\nand in weakness found courage and power among the Hills of God. In the\nlong night watches when pain was her companion, and the burdens of\nthose about her who claimed her never-failing sympathy pressed heavily\nupon her loving spirit, she would often light the candle at the head of\nher bed and read from some author of insight a poem or other glowing\npage, ponder it for relief, and bring to us at the breakfast table the\nresult of her thought upon it, in a radiant face and a gentle aloofness\nfrom everything petty and trivial, which banished mere gossip or small\ntalk and sent us refreshed to our tasks. She, worn with sleeplessness\nand anxiety, was yet the inspirer and comforter, and all with a\nself-effacing sweetness which sought no recognition of what she gave!\nIndeed, in her quiet dignity, she made any allusion to, or expressed\ngratitude for, such obligation difficult.\n\nSo it was with her intercourse with the Chinese. She came from\ninterviews with individuals or groups of women with the most delightful\nstories of those she had met. There were almost always among them \u201cSuch\na charming\u201d or \u201cSuch a bright and lovely lady.\u201d She set their striking\ncharacteristics before us in racy, sympathetic stories to which we, in\nthe Ladies\u2019 Home, listened with delight, and went from the recital to\nour routine duties with a sense of having been introduced to a fresh\ncircle of attractive friends from day to day. But of herself and what\nshe had done for them, rarely a word! She who gave herself so lavishly,\nwho had by her wonderful tact and charm won from each their best, had\nnothing to tell of how she had come to learn so much of these\nstrangers. One of her sentences was rarely introduced by \u201cI said\u201d or \u201cI\ntold her.\u201d Yet we, who sometimes caught a glimpse of the inner life,\nknew that she made a constant study of methods of approach and went\nwith prayerful preparation to meet the various calls.\n\nShe, more than any other missionary whom I have known, held herself\nconscientiously free from the restrictions of fixed hours and a\nteaching schedule, that she might be at liberty for large social and\nindividual service. It was her aim to come into intimate touch with\nmany and to order her days so that she might be ready to respond to\nevery call which came. In this, as in everything to which she really\nset herself, she was singularly successful.\n\nIt was beautiful to see her welcome a group of curious visitors and\nmake them feel that their interests were hers and, for the time, the\nthing of most importance. In a little while she knew something of their\npersonal history and, before most hostesses could have gotten beyond\nthe merest conventionalities, she was touching, tenderly, the sore spot\nin some life, with words of help and healing.\n\nFrom the very beginning of her life in China Miss Russell realized the\nimportance of the country work. For years she spent more than half her\ntime in the outstations connected with the Peking church as a centre.\nThis work involved long and trying journeys and great physical fatigue.\nOn these trips she established herself whenever practicable in a room\nor rooms of which she could have control. Here she could receive guests\nand give, by the attractiveness of her surroundings, object lessons in\nhome-making. To any who desired to follow her example she gave advice\nand help so unobtrusively that it never seemed like criticism or an\nassumption of being wiser or better than they, but just ordinary\nneighbourliness. She knew so well that \u201cIt is more blessed,\u201d and also\nmore comfortable, \u201cto give than to receive,\u201d that in the happiest ways\nshe made herself debtor to those about her. She learned from the\nChristian women many Chinese household arts and liked to show her\nmissionary associates of less dexterity that she could feed a fire\nunder a native kettle with as little waste of fuel and as large result\nin the boiling of porridge as those to the manner born.\n\nThe stories published in this volume were gathered in long evenings\nwhen she wanted relief from the constant giving out from mind and\nheart, and were sought also that those who had treasured them in memory\nmight, by imparting, feel themselves her aids and instructors. In those\ndays the kerosene lamp was a luxury almost unknown outside the large\ncities; never seen anywhere in the homes of the poor. Even foreign\ncandles gave so much clearer light than the smoky open lamps, filled\nwith the native bean or cottonseed oil, that her room seemed\nbrilliantly illuminated even though she had only a tiny lamp or a\ncandle on its table. It was sure to be daintily clean, for, whatever\nher surroundings, she was a lady always and everywhere and tidiness was\na part of herself. So was her love of beauty, and one can never think\nof her without some flower or picture to attract the eye and give a\ntouch of brightness to the room in which she sat. On these country\ntrips she wore the native dress and her dark eyes and hair made her\nseem more at home in it than many Western women. She was careful so to\nselect and combine colours as to be attractive to Chinese tastes. As\nshe had advisers on every hand, in this also she seized her opportunity\nto rely upon them, and let them feel their importance to her as\ncounsellors.\n\nAs I have read over the tales I could well imagine the scene in her\nlittle temporary home; the small room with its brick kang\u2014the brick\nplatform\u2014on which her folded bedding was piled; her books on the table,\nand her guest or guests in the seats of comfort, if such there were,\ncertainly in the seats of honour, for in all such matters of Chinese\netiquette she was punctilious; she, sitting with eager attention,\nlistening to the one who told the story as it had been handed down in\nthe home or the village for generations. Perhaps she had been off for a\nlong drive over bad roads during the day, had spoken to a restless\ncrowd in a court, or by the roadside to a group of women gathered on\nthe river bank, each with her bundle of clothes to be washed on the\nstones in the flowing stream. She was very weary and how tempting a\nquiet evening by herself, or with only her dear Bible woman helper as\ncompanion, must have seemed, but she had the engagement with this\nteacher or that Christian brother to listen to his tale. She asked many\nquestions as he went on and her pencil jotted down names and a point\nhere and there, that when he was gone she might write out a skeleton,\nwith the hope of using the material some time to help friends in\nAmerica to a better understanding of these neighbours of ours on the\nother side of \u201cThe Great Eastern Sea\u201d for \u201cEastern\u201d the Pacific is to\nChina and so her people name it.\n\nThese manuscripts she had put into shape roughly in summer vacation\ndays and so we found them after she had gone.\n\nIt had been her cherished plan to edit them carefully, add to them\nother stories of Chinese life as she had seen it, and make a volume\nwhich should be the contribution of her leisure, after retirement from\nactive work, to the new understanding of the people whom she loved by\nthose of her own land.\n\nShe had come to realize, as the later years brought increased physical\nsuffering, that the time might be short and said many times in the last\nfew months, \u201cI must get my stories together on my next furlough,\nwhether I come back to China or not.\u201d\n\nThe furlough never came, but instead, the call to \u201cCome up higher.\u201d\nDuring the brief final illness she seemed to have no thought that it\nmight be the end. There were no farewells, no last expressions of a\nwish that this or that should be done, before she passed into the\nunconsciousness from which she never wakened here. Her friends, knowing\nthe purpose and desire of the years, have felt the fulfilling of it by\nthe issue of this little volume, a sacred trust. The first thought was\nto do the editing which she planned, but every attempt seemed to take\nfrom the stories that which made them hers. Characteristic phrases and\nlittle turns of expression were her very own. The pages have,\ntherefore, been left with only such alterations as were necessary to\ncomplete sentences or make meaning clear, with no attempt at such\nimprovement of literary style as she herself would have given them.\n\nThey are issued for the sake of the many who loved her and who will\nprize them as coming from her hands, and as representing one of the\nactivities of her many-sided life. As the expense of publication is\nborne by friends, whatever money returns come from their sale will go\ndirectly to the work to which Miss Russell gave her latest strength,\n\u201cThe Hall of Enlightenment,\u201d or Ming Lung Tang in Peking, which is a\ngrowing social centre and the point from which radiate lines of\ninfluence which touch the lives of the women of that city in a variety\nof ways. She was its originator and her memory is still its\ninspiration.\n\nMrs. Goodrich\u2019s appreciation, on page 31, gives the story of these\nlater years and presents forcibly many of the especially striking\ncharacteristics of Miss Russell. To this has been added Mrs. Ament\u2019s\naccount of the funeral services in Peking. Miss Russell died at the\nsummer resting-place, Pei Tai Ho; from thence the casket was taken by\nrail to the city, an eight-hour journey. The desire of the women, that\nthe monument at her grave should have a Chinese as well as English\ninscription, has been carried out. Every spring a company of those who\nloved her, and looked upon her as their leader, meet at her grave to\nsing Christian hymns, place flowers upon the mound, and recall the\nbeautiful life from which they learned how full of fruitfulness and\nblessing fifty years of Christian discipleship could be made.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMISS NELLIE N. RUSSELL\u2019S UNIQUE WORK\n\nBy Mrs. Chauncey Goodrich\n\nAn Appreciation\n\n\nThe twenty-second day of August the cable flashed across the Pacific\nthe news that Miss Nellie N. Russell of Peking had succumbed to illness\nand was no more.\n\nThose who had not known Miss Russell intimately can little guess the\ngrief that came to every heart which knew her in China, whether\nbelonging to the missionary body, American or British, the Legation\ncircles of these countries, or the countless hundreds of Chinese who\nhad felt the beautiful uplift of her personality. While at school at\nNorthfield, Dwight L. Moody came to know her, and this reader of men at\nonce saw her rarely winsome gifts. I, who have known and loved her for\nthese twenty-one years, would like to write of her life in China,\nhoping perchance that some whiff of that beautiful fragrance may enter\nthe hearts of those who read and make them more beautiful for God.\n\nIt was in 1890 Miss Russell came to Peking. One never could think of\nher as being a bachelor maid, she was so womanly. How we revelled in\nher pretty clothes, so dainty and becoming\u2014so fit. The home-making\ninstinct was so strong that she was not content, as others had been, to\nlive in the families of married missionaries, but just as soon as\npossible secured a house, that she might have a home. It was simplicity\nitself, but every nook and corner breathed the woman,\u2014home-maker,\u2014and\nit was always open to her friends, Chinese and Western.\n\nVery early in her missionary life she felt the call of the country\nvillage work. Dressed most carefully in Chinese garments, for many\nyears she spent months at a time away from Peking, living at some\nbranch station, making trips to nearby villages, holding classes for\nwomen or visiting them in their homes. She purchased a cart and mule,\nand with a young serving-man from the better class who respected her\nevery whim, consenting to be carter, cook, protector, whatever Miss\nRussell wished, she went everywhere.\n\nAnd how wonderfully she entered into every one\u2019s life, whether of the\nevangelist, his wife, the Christian school teacher, the wife of the\nrichest man in the region roundabout, the old lady tottering to her\ngrave, or the young daughter-in-law, the bride, or the little\nmischievous boy. \u201cWith heart at leisure from itself,\u201d she drew out from\neach one his story. She never went in the spirit,\n\u201cNow-I-am-holier,-more-civilized-than-thou,-therefore-hear-ye-me,\u201d but\nrather in the spirit of one who sought to find out the interest or the\nhunger of each one\u2019s life, and so somehow bring it in touch with the\nLover of all. Such discoveries as she made of possibilities in the\nlives of this one and that!\n\nOn returning to Peking for work in the city, she again wore the\nEuropean dress. There was something in her nature that compelled her to\nhave things suitable if possible, and she at once felt the dress that\nother foreigners wore would meet with greater acceptance in Peking.\n\nWhen the Boxer storm began to gather, being so much in the country in\nthe winter of 1899 and 1900, she saw, as few did, the blackening\nclouds. The persecution of each Christian took a mighty hold on her\nsympathetic heart. Ah! no one who was out of China can ever realize the\nstrain of the months preceding that awful cataclysm, the agony of those\nmonths in the siege itself, not because of self, but because of\nmissionary friends, and because of the children begotten of the Lord,\nwho were out unsheltered in the fury of that wild and awful storm.\n\nAt its close, with no reserve, Miss Russell poured out her love and\nsympathy on the one hand, and on the other sought to regather the\nchurch in city and country, and to find work and help for men, women,\nand children. The situation was all abnormal, and Satan slew many with\nthe poisoned darts of revenge and greed, whom he could not slay\notherwise. Oh! but these things almost broke her tender heart. Her hair\ngrew grey and the power to resist disease and overweariness lessened,\nyet the spirit of our friend rallied, and she entered into the joy of\nthe Conquering Christ.\n\nWhen she saw that she could not take as long country trips and endure\nthe same fatigue as formerly, she set all her energies to work in\nbringing the Bible school for training women workers into being, and in\nreaching city women. This did not mean giving up her country work, only\nless prolonged visits.\n\nFollowing the sudden but prolonged sickness and the death of Dr. Ament,\nno one knew as did Miss Russell the work of the pastors, evangelists,\nteachers, and chapel-keepers, in the city and in the large country\nfield, which reached into a few walled cities and many market towns and\nvillages. It was she who gave her days and nights for many weeks, and\neven months, to helping Dr. Charles Young, the only gentleman then in\nthe Peking station, settle and rearrange the work. More than once the\nmidnight hour found her still in conference with Chinese workers,\nstrengthening those who were strong, exhorting the weak, and in some\ncases reporting and removing those who were proving inefficient, and\neven unworthy of their trust.\n\nThe pastor of the North Congregational Church, after the Hague\nConference, invited a Chinese friend who had been on the commission to\ncome to the church and tell about the meetings. This meeting he\nadvertised widely, and it was enthusiastically attended by many\nnon-Christians. Miss Russell, seeing the opportunity, began both at\nthis and the First Church to have simple lectures for women on the\ngreat Fair days, three times a month.\n\nThese lectures were given sometimes by Chinese, sometimes by\nWesterners, and covered every kind of subject. She invited noted ladies\nto come and address these meetings. In this way she and her associates\nmade hundreds of friends among women of every rank in society. Her\nassociates helped receive and entertain, sometimes for hours afterward,\nthe many guests who came, showing school, kindergarten, museums, etc.\n\nWith rare tact Miss Russell showed her appreciation of all things in\nChinese life that were really beautiful. She read the papers, learned\nthe newest phrases, found out what Chinese women loved, the motive of\ntheir acts, and, best of all, helped every one to be her best.\n\nHow they confided in her! The wealthy, aristocratic sisters, whose\nbrother, drawn away by the skilful efforts of some European gambler,\nwas gradually losing all their property; the ardent Confucian lady\nteacher, who was using her property for the establishment of a school\nfor girls, and who so longed to bring to Chinese and Manchu women the\nteaching of Confucius to make them forceful in their lives; the high\nofficial\u2019s wife, who would learn from her how best to work to banish\npolygamy; the princess who in Mongolia would establish a school for\nMongol girls; or the wives and sisters of high officials who would open\nschools or work against the evils of the cigarette or of opium. Chinese\nyouth and Chinese women are in that sensitive state\u2014the state of real\nlife and growth\u2014when they long to originate and execute for themselves.\nIt is the sign of independence, and while it leads to mistakes, in the\nend it will lead to more vigorous thinking and action. No one\nunassociated with Miss Russell can understand the tactful way in which\nshe made suggestions.\n\nThis past winter (1911) Miss Russell and Mrs. Ament opened rooms in a\ncourt directly opening from a gate on the main street, where they\nreceived their lady guests, held classes and small lectures, etc.\nNowhere in Peking was there a daintier, prettier reception-room. It was\na joy of every Chinese heart. There were always flowers, the flowers\nthey loved, and tea served in the daintiest manner. The Chinese, in the\ndesire to be \u201cenlightened\u201d and like Europeans, which has temporarily\nseized them, have too often banished their beautiful furniture from\ntheir reception-rooms, substituting an inferior European article. In\nthis room there was a beautiful blending of European and Chinese\nfurnishings, with Chinese largely predominating.\n\nSome of the ladies, when they found they would be free to have meetings\nhere, said, \u201cSo often we want to meet together, we who are interested\nin the progress of our women, and plan and talk over matters. It is not\neasy. We come from different ranks in society. We are not free to open\nour homes, as we do not control them, but we are so grateful that we\nmay come here. You do not laugh at us. We are new to all this and we\nknow are often bungling.\u201d\n\nAnother said, and she a lady of high rank and highest breeding, \u201cOne\nthing I have discovered. If ever Miss Russell encourages any movement\nfor our betterment, I am always sure I can indorse it. Some of the\nsuggestions of the Chinese ladies I cannot favour, but Miss Russell is\nso wise, so careful, so good a friend of the Chinese, I can always\ntrust her.\u201d\n\nOur friend, not content in keeping this means\u2014the lecture and class\ncourses\u2014of reaching women confined to our Mission, one day a year ago\ninvited the representatives of all the Missions in Peking to her study.\nThere she unfolded a plan by which these might be repeated in every\nMission and each of its centres of work in the city. This eventuated in\na plan for fifty lectures, often a missionary and a Chinese lady\nspeaking on the same subject, and thus reinforcing each other.\n\nSeeing, too, the great result following the union evangelistic meetings\nfor men during fairs held in the spring and early summer at the\ntemples, her fertile brain conceived a plan for a union effort on the\npart of all the various Christian workers for women. Tents were\nerected, seats rented, tea served, and there large and small groups of\nwomen heard the Gospel message for the first time. The result has been\nthat several of the Missions have opened new centres of work in the\ncity, near city gates, or in the suburbs.\n\nThe tireless brain is still\u2014the living heart has ceased its beating.\nThe loss to our work in Peking only those who knew and saw what she was\nable to do and to inspire done can fathom. Miss Russell always carried\nwith her the dignity of her womanhood, yet with never a sense of\nindependence. She sought the help of men and in some way drew out all\ntheir manhood and chivalry by her belief and trust in it. Her nature\nnever was distorted by her work, but her power to love and enter into\nothers\u2019 lives increased with every passing year.\n\nHer love for little children\u2014the new-born babe, the toddling child, the\nmerry boy or girl, was peculiarly reverent and beautiful. Her face\noften expressed an abandonment of joy as she watched the children play,\nor laughed at their wise and witty sayings. She took time for\nfriendships, of which she had a few very close and dear. She never\nfailed a friend in time of need.\n\nShe loved, too, the social life, being always most punctilious about\nher calls at the Legations and Customs, and on her Chinese friends of\nofficial families. She went not from a sense of duty, but from real\npleasure. She heartily enjoyed intercourse with the cultured ladies and\ngentlemen of these circles and was often able to bring them into touch\nwith her Manchu and Chinese friends with real advantage to both sides.\n\n\u201cAnd was she perfect?\u201d you ask. Ah, no! She had her strong likes and\ndislikes. She had her battles to fight, but each year, as her thoughts\ndwelt more and more upon the Lord and Master of us all, His power to\nuplift and to save, she grew in likeness to Him, and now she sits\nradiant in the Heavenlies, enjoying Him who was her life, and who can\ndoubt but that He whom she loved and lifted up will draw the souls she\nknew and loved, up and up, even to Himself.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMISS RUSSELL\u2019S FUNERAL SERVICE\n\n\nMrs. Mary P. Ament, who has been closely associated with Miss Russell\nduring the past year, sends the following account of the last loving\nservices rendered to our beloved missionary:\n\n\nMany friends had roamed the hills and meadows, bringing a variety of\nflowers\u2014wild pinks, fine everlastings peculiar to Pei Tai Ho, also a\nfeathery foliage, and had massed them on piano and organ before the\npulpit with beautiful effect.\n\nIntimate friends went slowly down from the service to Ivy Lodge, the\nStanleys\u2019 pleasant home, where Miss Russell had been spending the\nvacation days and where she died. As we entered the room and saw our\nfriend of many years, she seemed asleep, yet in repose one felt the\npower of her personality, her high purpose, her dignity. The casket was\ncovered with heavy pongee and lined with cream-white cr\u00eape. She wore a\nwhite embroidered dress, and about her lay sprays of cypress vine. Her\nbeautiful silvery hair made her look so queenly!\n\nThe long journey to Peking accomplished, a large number of friends,\nforeign and Chinese, awaited us, and next morning followed the\nflower-laden bier to the cemetery.\n\nThere, as one listened to the discriminating words of Pastor Li in his\naddress, and Pastor Wang in his prayer, it brought keen satisfaction to\nthink that the fragrance, the real essence of such a life, was\nperceived by those for whose welfare she had laboured. Rev. Mr. Stelle,\nspeaking in Chinese, emphasized our opportunity to show our respect for\nher by seeking the things which she valued. In English, he told us of\nthe comfort sought by the dear friend in the Twenty-third Psalm, which\nshe asked to have read to her the day before she left us. He read the\nPsalm and offered a prayer in English.\n\nAt early dawn the messenger came and, taking her by the hand, ascended\nthe heavenly heights. \u201cAnd there shall be no night there, and they need\nno candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them\nlight, and they shall reign for ever and ever.\u201d\n\nThese words are full of comfort, but as yet we feel the need of her\nministry so keenly that only the knowledge that the same God who\nstrengthened her is with us still enables us to move forward and\nconserve what we may of her lifework.\n\nWith severe limitations of health she yet wrought with delicate touch\nand a beautiful fabric was merging from beneath her hands.\n\nI must allude briefly to the beauty of the day, with its clear shining\nafter rain, the deep sorrow of the devoted friends who followed the\nbier on foot over miles of roadless distance from Ch\u2019ienmen to the\ncemetery, that quiet, ivy-walled inclosure in which stands the chapel\nwhere the service was held\u2014a tender, impressive service.\n\nWe had thought that few American or English friends could be present at\nthis time of year, when the foreign residents are away from the city,\nbut we were mistaken. Two secretaries of Legation, physicians of the\nUnion Medical College, fellow-workers, and old-time friends were there;\nnative pastors, Bible women, and church friends, servants and guards of\nhonour sent by the military governor of the city and by the chief of\nthe civil administration. The chapel had as many people standing as\nthere were sitting. The casket with its covering of beautiful vines and\nwhite flowers, roses, day lilies, tuberoses, spirea, stood in front of\nthe altar and was carried by the friends to the grave, where loving\nhands had arranged the beautiful wild date branches and vines as a\nlining. There, a short service with Pastor Jen and Teacher Ch\u2019uan\ntaking part, and a prayer and a hymn.\n\nThe mound as we left it was beautiful with the sides covered with the\ngreen vines and date branches, and on top the lovely floral pieces and\ncoloured flowers, two great wreaths of the long palm leaves and roses,\nand at the head a floral cross. There in the quiet and peace among the\ntrees we left it. Some of the Chinese are already saying, \u201cWhen a stone\nis erected, let it have one Chinese word upon it, just her name, then\nwe can find her grave and every spring at the \u2018Ch\u2019ing Ming\u2019\u2014feast of\nall souls\u2014we will go out and honour her memory.\u201d\n\nThere is a hush upon us all. God has come very near and taken our Great\nMissionary from us. We shall not look upon her like again.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGLEANINGS FROM CHINESE FOLKLORE\n\nBY NELLIE N. RUSSELL\n\n\nA TARTAR JOAN OF ARC\n\n\nMany hundreds of years ago, there lived far away in the northern\nmountains of China a very beautiful girl, named Liu Chin Ting. She was\nan only daughter and having no girl companions came to spend most of\nher time with her brothers. For long years the country had been rent by\nrebellions and wars. The children, breathing in the spirit of their\nfathers, played at sham battles and dreamed of rescuing their land.\n\nChin Ting came gradually to be looked upon as their leader, her wise\nlittle head was full of plans, and her eyes would flash fire as she\ngave her orders to the youths who followed her.\n\nHer deeds were talked of far and near and the people began to say,\n\u201cSurely a God has come down to lead us, and help us hold our mountain\nagainst the roaming tribes of banditti.\u201d When she was but sixteen years\nold she was placed at the head of the mountain clan. The men and boys\nlooked upon her as the French did upon Joan of Arc and gave her their\nfullest confidence and devotion. She knew their mountains, all the\npaths leading up and down, the places which needed to be guarded, the\ncaves where she and her soldiers could hide and spring out upon an\nunsuspecting foe.\n\nThe men of the land had either been away fighting, or at home tilling\nlaboriously their poor lands, so there was no one who knew the hills\nand valleys as did Chin Ting. In every attack she was successful until\nthe neighbouring tribes were subdued and left the little kingdom in\npeace, for, they said, \u201cWe cannot fight against a god!\u201d\n\nWhen their enemies were thus overcome Chin Ting\u2019s father and mother\nthought that the time had come when their daughter should marry. From\nthe north and the south, the east and the west, came offers for her\nhand, but she would listen to none of them, for she said she had still\nto rescue her land from their great southern foe, the Chinese.\n\nHer parents laid their commands upon her until at last she yielded so\nfar as to say, \u201cI will marry none but the man who can defeat me in my\nown mountains.\u201d She wrote her vow on a tablet and had it set up in the\nmain pass through which all must go to reach the heights.\n\nMany were the battles fought by the heads of the other tribes, but she\neasily held her mountain.\n\nOne day the general of the northern Sung dynasty, Kao Chun Pao, on his\nway to report to the Emperor, crossed the pass and seeing the tablet\nread the inscription, and in disgust broke the slab into bits, saying,\n\u201cIs it possible that in our great land there is a woman with so little\nself-respect as thus to proclaim her want of feminine delicacy? She\nmust surely be some great overgrown ugly creature. I would stamp upon\nher even as I do upon the broken bits of this tablet,\u201d as he ground\nthem under his feet.\n\nA man of the mountains, who had heard from his lookout post the bitter\nwords, ran in hot haste to Chin Ting and told her all that the General\nhad said and done. The proud maiden was furious at being thus scorned,\nand blowing her horn summoned the men of the mountains to hear the\ninsult offered her and to revenge her wrong.\n\nMeanwhile General Kao had decided to give battle and punish this woman.\n\nWhile he was making inquiries as to who she was, her men came upon him\nwith great fury. With amazement the famous general saw the young girl\nwho led them. The engagement was long and severe, but resulted in the\ndefeat of the Chinese leader, who was made a prisoner and carried to\nthe home of Chin Ting to be beheaded.\n\nNow, General Kao was a very handsome young man of distinguished\nbearing.\n\nHis admiration for his conqueror was so evident in his looks and words,\nthat he not only disarmed her anger but won her heart. She decided to\nmarry rather than to kill him. The wedding was hastily arranged, and\nthe General with his bride set out at once for Peking, to take his\nreport to the Emperor and to take command of a large force which was to\nmove southward from the capital to recapture the city of Yang Chow,\nwhich was in the hands of southern rebels. According to the law of the\nland, any officer, under orders, who married during a campaign should\nbe beheaded. When the Emperor heard the story of General Kao he ordered\nthat he be degraded and at once executed, but later, as he heard more\nand more of the valour of the wife he had taken, he said, \u201cIf she will\ntake the city of Yang Chow, her husband\u2019s life shall be her reward.\u201d\nShe was given command of the army in place of Kao Chun Pao, who was\nallowed to accompany her as assistant.\n\nShe led the army to the south and attacked the city day after day with\nresistless energy and resourcefulness. After a long siege the\nstronghold fell into her hands. The Governor was taken prisoner and\nsent as voucher for the completeness of her conquest to the Emperor. On\nhis arrival the papers granting pardon to her husband were sent to Chin\nTing, and she was made Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial forces. For\nthirty years she led them in many victorious battles and recovered much\nterritory which had been lost by the northern kingdom in previous\nyears. A picture showing her attack on the gates of Yang Chow is a\ngreat favourite with the Chinese, and always on sale at the New Year\nwhen Chinese homes are freshly decorated.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA DAUGHTER OF THE ORIENT\n\n\nTwo thousand years ago, in the time of the Han dynasty, there lived in\nChina a man by the name of Chun Y\u00fc I. He was a small official and,\nbecause of some offence by which he had angered his superior, he was\nsentenced to have his feet cut off.\n\nGreat was the sorrow in the home when the decision was made known. No\nfires were lighted in the kitchen, for no one could think of eating.\nWith deep sighs and bitter tears Mr. Chun bewailed his fate. \u201cAlas!\nalas!\u201d said he; \u201chow bitter is my lot! Had I a son he would suffer for\nme. To me have come five daughters. Ah! had the gods only been good and\ngiven me one son! What can girls do? Indeed I am accursed.\u201d\n\nHour by hour he thus lamented. His wife and children mourned and\nfasted, but \u201cAlas! what can we do?\u201d was their hopeless cry.\n\nThe fateful day came when the father must go to the capital, there to\nreceive his punishment.\n\nIn the early morning his little daughter \u201cGlory,\u201d only ten years old,\ncame and knelt down before him, and with many tears besought him to\nallow her to accompany him. He refused, but she persisted with\nprostrations and knockings of her head on the brick floor.\n\n\u201cIf you do not let me go I can but die. How can I live through these\ndays and not know how you are? I must go. Indeed I either go or die.\u201d\nAll of these words were accompanied with so many knocks of the little\nhead on the bricks at his feet that the father gave way and told her\nmother and the servants to get her and her nurse ready for the journey.\n\nOn the road she told the servants that, as early as possible, after\nreaching the city they must find a way for her to see the Emperor, for\nshe was going to plead for her father.\n\nNow, in those days the Emperor of China was not shut away from his\npeople as he was later, and little Glory was taken by her father\u2019s\nsteward to the palace gate. Here she knocked her head to the soldiers\non guard and asked to be allowed to see the Emperor.\n\nThe hearts of the rough men were touched by her distress and sweet,\npleading little face and the request was sent in to the palace. Word\ncame back that little Glory was to enter. With trembling hands and\nquivering lips, but shining eyes, she knelt before her Emperor. Many\ntimes did she make her prostrations, and at his command she told her\nstory with much weeping.\n\nShe told him how good and kind her father was; that every one loved\nhim; he had never made a mistake before, and indeed the thing for which\nhe was to be punished had been much exaggerated. She finished with, \u201cO\nGreat Emperor, I entreat you to allow me to become one of your slaves\nand thus redeem my father\u2019s mistake, and secure his pardon. I shall\nhave long years to serve you, and my father is old. Alas! alas! the\ngods have given him no son to plead for him, and I am but a little\ngirl! I entreat, I beg, oh, hear me, Great and Glorious Emperor, spare\nmy father and let me be your slave forever.\u201d\n\nThe Emperor\u2019s heart was melted within him as he looked upon her\ndistress and heard her voice so full of anguish; and, telling her to\nrise and stand near him, he said, \u201cYou are indeed a filial daughter. A\ncountry with such an one is blest like the possessor of a precious\njewel. I pardon your father and restore his official position; and you\nmay go home with him.\u201d\n\nThe Emperor then called his ministers and commanded them to have it\npublished abroad that from that day the punishment of cutting off the\nhands and feet of criminals was to be done away with forever. \u201cThis,\u201d\nsaid he, \u201cis an expression of my pleasure that such a daughter of the\ngods lives within the \u2018four seas.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhen little Glory was taken to the prison where her father was\nconfined, she knelt before him and told him of her visit to the palace\nand the Emperor\u2019s promise. Great was his surprise that his little\ndaughter had saved him, and it was with difficulty they convinced him\nof the truth of her story.\n\nWhen he could no longer doubt he said, \u201cMy life is sweet because the\ngods have given me such a daughter. What need have I of sons?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WILD GOOSE AND THE SPARROW\n\n\nThe great Chinese sage, Confucius, had a son-in-law, Kung Yeh Chang,\nwho understood better than any one before or since his day the habits\nof birds. So much time and study did he give to them that tradition\nsays he understood all bird language and many stories are told of him\nin this connection. He built a beautiful pavilion in his garden, which\nwas rich in flowers, trees, shrubs, and ponds, so that the birds loved\nto gather there; thus he was able to spend many delightful hours in\ntheir company listening to their wise and unwise talk.\n\nMany of these conversations have been handed down the past two thousand\nyears in the wonderful folklore of China, and from these one can see\nthe influence they have had on the customs and traditions of the\npeople.\n\nAmong the Chinese the wild goose has the reputation for having more\nvirtues and wisdom than any other bird. This is brought out in the\nfollowing story. One day, while Kung Yeh Chang was resting in his\npavilion, a small house-sparrow lit in a tree near-by and commenced\nsinging and chattering. A little later a wild goose dropped down by the\npond for a drink. Hardly had he taken a sip when the little sparrow\ncalled out, \u201cWho are you? Where are you going?\u201d To this the goose did\nnot reply and the sparrow became angry and asked again, \u201cWho are you,\nthat you should be so proud and lofty you cannot pay attention to my\nquestions? Why do you consider me beneath your notice?\u201d and still the\ngoose did not answer. Then, indeed, was the little sparrow furious. In\na loud, shrill voice, he said, \u201cEvery one listens to me! Again I ask,\nwho are you with your lofty airs? Tell me or I will fly at you,\u201d and he\nput his head up, and spread his wings, and tried to look very large and\nfierce.\n\nBy this time the goose had finished drinking, and looking up he said,\n\u201cDon\u2019t you know that in a big tree with many branches and large leaves\nthe cicadas love to gather and make a noise? I could not hear you\ndistinctly. You also know the saying of the Ancients, \u2018If you stand on\na mountain and talk to the people in the valley they cannot hear you,\u2019\u201d\nand the wild goose took another drink.\n\nHow the little sparrow chattered and sputtered, shook his wings, and at\nlast said, \u201cIn what way are you, with your long neck and short tail,\nbetter than I? In what is your value greater. Tell me, and if you can\nprove it you shall be my teacher. What, for instance, do you know of\nthe great world? Now, I can go into people\u2019s houses, hide in the\nrafters under their windows, see their books and pictures, what they\nhave to eat and what they do. I can hear all the family secrets, know\nall that goes on in the family and state. I know who are happy and who\nare sad. I know all the quarrels and all the gossip. All the other\nbirds are glad to see me because I can tell them the latest news, and I\nknow just how to tell it to produce the best effect. So you see that I\nknow much that you, with your great stupid body, can never hope to\nknow.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe consider,\u201d said the wild goose, \u201cthat the highest law of virtue and\ngood is to give others an equal chance with ourselves, or even to give\nthem the first choice. Because of this we always fly either in the\nshape of the character \u2018Man\u2019 or the figure one. No one takes advantage\nof the other. We believe in the \u2018Three Bonds,\u2019 i.e., Prince and\nMinister, Husband and Wife, Father and Son. Also in the five\nvirtues,\u2014Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Knowledge, and Truth.\nWith us, if the male bird dies, the female flies alone; if the female\ndies the male flies alone; if both parents die their young fly alone\nfor three years. We have our unchanging customs of going north in the\nspring and south in the winter. People come to depend on us, and make\nready for either their spring work or the cold of winter. Thus, while\nwe have not known the family or state skeletons and the gossip of the\nwomen and servants, we are a help to man.\n\n\u201cNow, you have no laws binding you. As a family, you sparrows are\nselfish; you gossip, chatter, steal, and drive away every one else,\nonly thinking of your own good. Even among yourselves you quarrel.\nBecause of these things you are treated with contempt and looked\nlightly upon by all. Indeed, so much so that you are a by-word. Now, we\nare respected and held up as models. Do you not hear parents and\nteachers tell their children and scholars to come and go quietly by\nthemselves to and from school; to go straight ahead without looking to\nthe right or left; not to gather in groups and chatter like\nhouse-sparrows? Do not the respectable people do the same on the street\nand in the house? Is there not a proverb that \u2018There are many people\nwithout the wisdom and virtues of the wild goose\u2019? You do, indeed,\nchatter about small affairs like foolish women and girls and thus are\nbeneath my notice and I bid you good-day.\u201d\n\nAll this time the poor little sparrow was trembling with rage, and so\ngreat was it that she could not fly away nor keep her hold on the\nbranch of the tree, and so she fell to the ground, and thus she died.\n\nKung Yeh Chang exclaimed as he looked at her and then at the goose away\nin the distance, \u201cAi ya [sad, sad], most of mankind are like the\nsparrow, but the truly superior man will be like the wild goose and\nfollow the rules of the Three Bonds and Five Virtues.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA CHINESE HERO\n\nHan Hsin\n\n\nThe youth of Western lands know very little of the great land of China,\nwith its long history reaching far back into the dim past. How little\nis known of the fierce, stupendous struggles in the long ago, when\nChina was not one country but was composed of many small kingdoms whose\npeople were constantly fighting with each other for supremacy.\n\nIt was in those early days that were born China\u2019s heroes who have been\nremembered ever since in song and story. To the Chinese but little\nstage setting is necessary for their national heroes. In their\ntheatrical plays their imaginations fill in, with the help of mere\nsuggestions, all that is needed to make their surroundings very real to\nthem.\n\nOne of China\u2019s greatest heroes was Han Hsin. He lived in the kingdom of\nChin, very many centuries ago. When he was a small boy he showed\nremarkable wisdom, and, although he was very small of stature, his\nteachers predicted a great future for him.\n\nOne day, when Han was only six years old, he and another little boy\nwere playing ball, when the ball came down into the deep hole of the\nmillstones. They could not get it out at first and the other lad wanted\nto call for help. Little Han Hsin said, \u201cNo, I will think of a plan.\u201d\nFinding a long stick, he began filling the hole with earth. As he\npoured the earth into the hole, he kept stirring the ball around,\nthereby keeping it on top of the earth until he could reach it with his\nhand.\n\nAnother time he saw a woman, in rage, jump into a large earthen\nwater-barrel. He was not strong enough to draw her out, and no one was\nnear, so he found a stone and beat with all his strength on the barrel\nuntil he made a hole in it near the bottom, and the water running out,\nthe life of the woman was saved. Many such stories, and more wonderful\nones, were told of him, and his fame spread all over the kingdom.\n\nIn those days every prince had a wise man, or a group of wise men,\nabout him to give him advice regarding the affairs of his kingdom. Han\nHsin was presented to his Prince by his teachers as worthy of holding\nsuch a position, but when the Prince and his officers saw how small he\nwas, they laughed and said, \u201cWe do not want a child,\u201d and would not\naccept his services.\n\nHan Hsin then went and presented himself at the court of the Prince of\nChin Chou. Now, this Prince, Chin Pa, was noted for his strength. It\nwas said of him that, if he tried, he could breathe the roof off the\nhouse; also that he could lift himself up by the hair. When he was\nsmall he was fed on the milk of the tiger. Thus his strength was not\nthe strength of man.\n\nWhen Han Hsin was presented to this Prince by his teachers as a wise\nman and one who could help him make his country strong, he laughed and\nsaid, \u201cWhat can such a boy do? If I hold out my head and tell him to\ncut it off he has not the strength to do it, even though I stand still\nand do not resist him. How can there be wisdom in such a small boy? How\ncan such as he help me? He cannot fight for me or wait on me. Take away\nthe child, I do not want him.\u201d\n\nThe teachers urged the Prince to give the young man a trial and at last\nhe said, \u201cHere is my spear\u2014let him hold it up straight for half a day.\nIf he is strong enough for that, he may find something to do in my\nservice.\u201d Alas! Han Hsin could not even for half an hour hold up the\ngreat iron spear, and he was driven with laughter and derision from the\ncourt.\n\nWhen the teachers remonstrated with the Prince he said, \u201cI want no such\nweakling in my kingdom.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you have made an enemy of him,\u201d they urged, \u201cand if you do not use\nhim, you should kill him. Although you, our Prince, will not believe\nus, we know if you let him go he will, in the end, be used by some\nother kingdom to destroy yours.\u201d At this Chin Pa laughed loud and long,\nbut seeing the anxious and serious faces of the teachers he said, \u201cI\nwill take some soldiers and go after him, and if you wish I will kill\nhim.\u201d\n\nNow when Han Hsin, in bitterness of heart, was driven from the court he\ntook the road leading to the mountains, and was part way up when,\nchancing to look back, he saw the mounted band coming. They did not see\nhim, but he knew that they were in search of him. He knew that he could\nnot escape, so he stretched himself out on the side of the hill with\nhis feet toward the top and his head toward the bottom of the hill, and\npretended that he was asleep.\n\nWhen Chin Pa came up and saw him there he smiled to himself and called\nto his men to remount, and away they went back to the castle, laughing\nand making merry over the thought that any one who would sleep in such\na position, could rend the kingdom away from their great Prince.\n\nWhen the teachers heard of the outcome of the pursuit of Han Hsin they\nwere troubled and said, \u201cIt is craft and not stupidity\u2014go back again,\novertake him and kill him.\u201d To please them and for the sport of it, the\nPrince started out again. By this time Han Hsin had crossed the\nmountains and was walking on the plain. Again he saw them coming, and\nlooking about he discovered a very ill-smelling hole, and bending over\nit he exclaimed, as his pursuers came up, \u201cAh, how sweet, how\nfragrant!\u201d\n\nThis time the Prince declared that Han Hsin was entirely foolish, and\nhe would not kill a fool, for a man who did not know the difference\nbetween the sweetly fragrant and the offensive was not one a Prince\nneed fear.\n\nThus Han Hsin was left to himself, and returned to his own country and\nvillage. His own Prince, Han Kao Lin, again refused him. At that time\nthis Prince was at war with Chin Pa and was very hard pressed by the\nlatter, and anxious to surround himself with wise men. He could not\nsee, however, how there could be wisdom in such a small man as Han\nHsin. But, at last, after much persuasion, he gave a reluctant\npermission for him to be made leader of the army which was about to set\nout to attack Chin Pa.\n\nOld pictures show Han Hsin seated on a throne and worshipped by the\nmilitary men and soldiers under him. They believed that he was to lead\nthem to victory and save their country. It is said that he knew every\nsoldier, and could tell at a glance how many there were in a company\npassing before him and who were absent from the ranks. He was one of\nthe greatest military leaders, if not the greatest, in Chinese history.\n\nOne time, when engaged in war with the Kingdom of Chao, he drove the\nenemy to the bank of a river, but they got over in their own boats and\ndestroyed them on the other side. Feeling secure in the thought that\nthe army under Han Hsin could not cross that night, they made a camp\nand had a feast. But Han Hsin was not an ordinary man and he commanded\nevery man to get a board of some kind and in the darkness to swim\nacross quietly. This they did, and fell upon the merry camp and won a\ngreat victory.\n\nAnother time Han Hsin insisted on camping on the shore of the great\nriver. His officers and men protested, and said that he was not leaving\nany path for retreat in case of defeat, as they had no ships or bridges\nand few could swim so far. All the comfort they could get was his\nreply, \u201cWhen defeat comes we will discuss the question.\u201d The enemy were\nseen coming upon them from the front, and then Han Hsin called to his\nmen to fight for their lives, for death was certainly behind them in\nthe river, but, if they fought bravely, they could defeat the enemy in\nfront. This they did with great slaughter.\n\nAt another time, when fighting with the great Chin Pa, of the Kingdom\nof Chin, the latter shut up all but one of the roads over the mountains\nand awaited Han Hsin in ambuscade in a very narrow place, the only one\nwhere it seemed possible for him to get over the mountains. He did not\neven then know the military master that he had to deal with in Han\nHsin, as it was still early in the war. Han Hsin sent out his spies,\ndisguised as countrymen, and learned the condition of things. So,\ncalling up his men to make a lot of bags, even turning their clothes\ninto bags, his army set out.\n\nOn reaching the steepest place in ascending the mountains, he commanded\nthe army to halt and fill the bags with earth. This place was not\nguarded, as it was supposed to be impossible of ascent. During the\nnight, however, Han Hsin ordered an advance, and, using the bags to\nmake a series of steps, his army went quickly up and over to the other\nside, to the rear of Chin Pa\u2019s army. Here Han Hsin attacked the enemy\nin force and easily put them to flight. Later they recovered themselves\nand in many battles afterward between these two great generals neither\ncould obtain any great advantage.\n\nNow Han Hsin had a friend and helper in Chang Lang, a literary man who\nwas wise and safe to trust, and who often helped him in his plans. They\ntalked over the situation, and Chang Lang said that the strength of\nChin Pa was in a company of three thousand soldiers who were all\nrelated to each other, and whose officers were also of the same clan.\nIn some way that company must be disbanded or Han Hsin never would win\nthe final victory. Many plans were formed, but the soldiers of the clan\nseemed to possess charmed lives.\n\nAt last Chang Lang came one night to the tent of Han Hsin and said, \u201cI\nhave found a way, and, as there is a fine wind and it is on the eve of\na battle, I will try my new scheme.\u201d He then produced a large kite, the\nfirst ever made, and disclosed his plan. All these years Han Hsin had\nremembered how Chin Pa had laughed at his small stature, but he was\nthat night to show him that, though small, he was formidable as an\nenemy.\n\nSome of his officers were called in and fastened him by ropes to the\nkite and then let go. Gradually the kite ascended, and, in the\ntwilight, appeared high over the camp of the three thousand soldiers.\nThey were filled with terror, for never before had such a thing been\nseen or heard of. It was dark enough to prevent them from seeing Han\nHsin at the height and distance he was from them. The kite came to rest\nfor a few moments, and they heard a voice say, \u201cYou all have old and\nyoung in your homes. Why do you not go home to them? If you stay on,\nyou will some day all be killed; then who will worship at the grave of\nyour fathers and hand down the name?\u201d\n\nThe men said, \u201cIt is a voice of a god, a warning, let us depart at\nonce,\u201d and that night they left the camp.\n\nThe battle the next day was terrific, but in the end Han Hsin won a\ngreat victory. When urged to kill his old enemy he said, \u201cNo, let him\ngo, for he will kill himself, and that will be better.\u201d So, Chin Pa was\nset at liberty and started with his army to return south. The battle\nhad been near a river and Han Hsin knew that Chin Pa must cross it on\nhis retreat. So, before the battle was fought, Han Hsin had written, in\nhoney, on a big stone slab near the ford, these four words, \u201cHeaven\nDestroy Hsiang Yi.\u201d The last two words were Chin Pa\u2019s name. A swarm of\nants scenting the honey crawled up to eat it, and thus outlined the\ncharacters very distinctly.\n\nWhen Chin Pa came over the river and saw the stone with the four large\ncharacters he said, \u201cWoe is me, even the worms and ants know that\nHeaven has deserted me. I will kill myself.\u201d And then and there, almost\nin sight of his enemy, the man he had regarded with contempt, he killed\nhimself.\n\nThus ended a strife of nearly twenty years between two kingdoms, and\nHan Hsin came to be the Prince of his kingdom. Often during the time of\nkite-flying in China, away in the heavens one sees a kite in the shape\nof an old-time warrior, and few of the many beautiful and fancy kites\nto be seen have such an interesting story. The kite has come to be, in\nWestern lands, merely an amusement, but in China, where it was probably\ninvented, it ever carries with the sport the message, \u201cStrength of mind\nis greater than strength of body.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA CHINESE TEA-HOUSE STORY\n\nChi Hsiao Tang\n\n\nOne day the Emperor Chia Ching called his scribe, the great and crafty\nYen Sung, and said, \u201cI want four poems immediately, one on each of the\nseasons.\u201d\n\nThe word was sent out and within a few days poems were presented and\naccepted on Summer, Autumn, and Winter, but not one written on Spring\npleased the Emperor. Again and again the literary men wrote on the\nsubject, but only to fail of his approbation. At last he declared in a\nrage that unless a poem that could be set to music and sung by the\nladies of the palace should immediately be produced there would soon be\nfewer literary men in the country, and commanded his minister to see\nthat his wishes were at once carried out.\n\nYen Sung, almost in despair, went to his steward and told him his\ndilemma. Now, Nien Chi, the steward, was as bold and bad a man as his\nmaster, shrewd and cunning withal. After a moment\u2019s thought he said,\n\u201cRest your heart! I know a teacher of great ability, who lives at my\ninn; I will see what he can do.\u201d He called his cart, went in great\nstate to the inn, and asked for a man by the name of Chi Hsiao Tang.\nWhen Teacher Chi appeared Nien Chi with profound bows and his most\npleasing manner said, \u201cThe fame of your literary ability has come to\nthe ears of my master, Yen Sung, and he desires you to write\nimmediately a poem on Spring.\u201d\n\nChi Hsiao Tang replied, \u201cI am a man of mean ability, but that is indeed\nan easy subject which you give me. Return in a few hours\u2019 time and my\npoor production shall be ready for you.\u201d\n\nNien Chi thanked him and took his leave. He returned later and the poem\nwas awaiting him as promised. He read it with delight and said to the\nauthor, \u201cThe gods have indeed given you a great gift. One of them must\nhave spoken to you from the Imperial heavens. My master will surely\ncall and thank you in person.\u201d He then withdrew and hastened to the\npalace of Yen Sung, who seized the manuscript and read it eagerly,\nexclaiming, as he finished its perusal, \u201cThank the gods, we are saved!\nThis is simply perfect.\u201d\n\nThen his face fell, for on the corner of the sheet were the name and\nseal of the writer. \u201cThis will never do,\u201d said he. \u201cI want to send it\nin as my own, and how can I? Alas! I must still delay to copy it\nto-night.\u201d\n\nThe next day he presented it to the Emperor as his own \u201cmean effort,\u201d\nand humbly begged for pardon that he could do no better for his great\nand mighty sovereign. The Emperor was much pleased and gave Yen Sung\ncostly presents and high literary honours.\n\nShortly after came the triennial examinations for the advanced degrees.\n\nYen Sung was one of the judges of the essays. He knew that Chi Hsiao\nTang would probably be promoted as he was a man of such ability, and he\nfeared that the story of the poem would in some way reach the ears of\nthe Emperor.\n\nAfter much thought as to how to avert such a calamity, he issued a\nproclamation that no one by the name of Chi be admitted to the\nexamination.\n\nChi Hsiao Tang presented himself at the hall on the opening day, but\nwas refused a place among the aspirants for degrees, the only reason\ngiven being that an order barring all of his surname had been issued by\nthe powerful minister and judge, Yen Sung. In great sorrow and\ndisappointment the scholar returned to his inn and wrote to his wife,\ntelling her to sell some of their land and come to Peking to await with\nhim the next opportunity for examination, three years later. This she\ndid. They rented a place and there, day by day, he studied, hoping to\nsee the ban lifted.\n\nOne day while out for a walk he saw a great crowd gathered. Drawing\nnear he found that a man of eminence was to be executed. He asked, \u201cWho\nis the prisoner?\u201d and was told, \u201cAn official by the name of Pai.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat has he done that he should be so degraded?\u201d asked Chi Hsiao Tang\nof a man standing near. \u201cHow can you ask that?\u201d replied the man, \u201cwhen\nYen Sung is the head of the Empire. He has but to nod and officials\nlose their heads.\u201d\n\nAs the already disappointed scholar turned away he said, \u201cWhat can I\nhope for when such a man as that is executed?\u201d Sadly musing, he\ncontinued, \u201cI had hoped to become an official, serve my country, and\nreceive honour, but I see the life of a minister is a most dangerous\none. If he would be upright, he has not the rest and quiet of the\ncommon citizen. All is weakness and evil under the sun. I will no\nlonger mingle with men, but will go apart and seek to prepare myself\nfor a higher existence among those who by contemplation and\nrenunciation have become fit for companionship with the gods.\u201d\n\nHe went home, told his wife what he had seen, and said, \u201cI have given\nup my plan for an official life. At our home in the country are houses\nand land, all you can ever need.\u201d \u201cWhy not return at once, care for our\nproperty, and live in quiet?\u201d asked his wife. \u201cNo! There is no hope for\nme. I give all our possessions to you,\u201d was his reply.\n\n\u201cWhat is your purpose?\u201d questioned the now anxious wife. \u201cIf you will\nnot return to the home of your ancestors, what do you mean by giving\nthe land to me? Are you going to enter the Eternal?\u201d\n\nChi Hsiao Tang looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, \u201cI will\ngo to some quiet place in the mountains. There will I live and purify\nmyself from this evil world. I care or hope no longer for earthly joy\nor position. It is all vanity\u2014vanity.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut what of me?\u201d urged his wife. \u201cAm I nothing more to you? Are you\ncasting me off also? This you shall not do. We will go together to the\ncountry and there you will forget your disappointment, or I too will go\nwith you to the purple hills by Buddha\u2019s help. Possibly by long years\nof tears, prayers, and self-denial the great Buddha will have\ncompassion on me, and I too may find Peace. I cannot hope to enter into\nyour spirit life, I who am only a woman, but surely the effort I make\nwill at least be seen by the god. Do you think, because I am a woman,\nmy heart does not long for that which can give rest? Why do I sit every\nnight, hour after hour, with my tongue pressed against the roof of my\nmouth, my hands and feet crossed, trying not to be conscious of any\nbodily sensation. Is it not that I too may come in touch with the great\npure Holy Ones? Why do I repeat the name of the great Buddha hundreds\nof times each day, before anything to eat or drink crosses my lips? Why\nam I almost a cripple? Is it not because of the long hours of kneeling\non the cold brick floor praying to the Goddess of Mercy? Have I not\nkept the fast days most faithfully since coming into your home? Have I\neaten meat? When you were ill did I not promise the gods that if you\nrecovered I would go to the highest temple on the mountains, crawling\nall the way on hands and knees, and when you were restored to health\ndid I not fulfil my vow? Did I not wear single garments all one winter?\nDid I not take flesh from my own arm to make a broth which cured our\nmother when she was ill? Do none of these things appeal to the Holy\nOnes? Can I not hope that I too, a poor woman, may attain to the\nEternal Rest?\u201d The tears streamed down her cheeks as she added, \u201cHave\ncompassion upon me, your wife, and let me go with you.\u201d\n\nChi Hsiao Tang looked tenderly at her for a moment and then, with a\ngreat sigh, which showed that he too suffered at the parting, replied,\n\u201cWhat I have said I have said! You would prevent me from seeing the\nEternal Light. You would hold me still to the earthly.\u201d He ordered\ndinner, and as he sat eating he saw a new bench drop down into his\ncourt.\n\n\u201cThis,\u201d said he to himself, \u201cmust have come from the gods, whether to\nhelp me to leave the earth or to keep me on it I will test and see.\u201d So\nhe said to the bench, \u201cIf you are to help me leave the earth move up\nand down three times.\u201d This the bench immediately did. His wife coming\nin at the moment, he called to her \u201cto look at the magic bench.\u201d She\nreplied in astonishment, but with a sense of relief, \u201cWhat is this, are\nyou bereft of your senses? You a Teacher to talk of a magic bench.\u201d He\nanswered gravely, \u201cYou shall see me sit on the bench and rise in the\nair,\u201d and before she realized what had befallen her, he was rising into\nspace and was soon beyond her sight.\n\n\u201cAh!\u201d said she as she wept; \u201che has gone to the purple mountains to\nattain the god-life. He has left me here; I will seek it in my home.\u201d\nShe called to him and a faint sound came from the distance, \u201cThe gods\nhave had pity upon me and taken me from the evil of the world,\u201d and\nhere he was seen no more. The bench carried him to a mountain far from\nall with which he was familiar, and there came to rest. He rose to his\nfeet and as he did so the bench disappeared. He looked north, south,\neast, and west, nothing but stones and hills, not a human being in\nsight.\n\nHe said to himself, \u201cWhat can I do here? I will walk until I find some\nliving thing.\u201d Far in the distance on a high mountain-top he saw what\nappeared to be a man. After hours of weary climbing, faint with hunger\nand thirst, he reached the spot. He found two men sitting on a stone;\none had on a yellow robe, white stockings, and striped shoes. His face\nwas very white and he wore a long beard. At his side was a cow\u2019s tail,\nused to brush away flies. The other man was dressed in black, had a\ndark face, protruding eyes, and a long black beard. One was facing to\nthe east, the other to the west, and they were playing chess. Above\nthem was a beautiful spruce tree, by their side a dish of peaches and\none of pears, two wine-cups and a bottle of wine. When Chi Hsiao Tang\ncame up to them they did not lift their heads or look up, seemed only\ninterested in their game. But he thought, \u201cThese are surely two gods in\ndisguise,\u201d and kneeling before them he said, \u201cI prostrate myself to\nyou, my Teachers. I wish to prepare myself to join the Immortals.\u201d\n\nThe man in yellow lifted his head and asked, \u201cWhere do you come from\nand why are you not going in for the examinations, for I see that you\nare a man of no mean ability?\u201d Chi Hsiao Tang replied, \u201cIt is all\nvanity.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are rich; why are you not satisfied with the things which money\nwill buy?\u201d was the next question. \u201cThey also are vanity,\u201d was his\nanswer. \u201cName, honour, riches, luxury; at the end of all is death,\u201d\ncontinued Chi Hsiao Tang. \u201cI have looked at it all, tasted much of it,\nand it does not satisfy beyond the passing moment. I do not desire it,\nand I have come to you, my Teachers, for instruction as to the way of\nattaining purification and the true life.\u201d \u201cTo attain that you must\nsuffer much. Can you endure?\u201d said the sage. \u201cI can,\u201d was the reply.\n\u201cDifficulties are many. Can you meet them?\u201d Still he answered, \u201cI can.\nI am not afraid of difficulties.\u201d \u201cBut,\u201d urged the wise man, \u201cif you\ndesire to attain the true life you must be ready to save, not to\ndestroy men. No one can wear fine clothes like yours and put away the\nworld. You will have to put on coarse cloth garments. When your shoes\nare worn out can you go barefooted on these rocky hillsides?\u201d \u201cI can in\ntime,\u201d was the reply. \u201cWe have no dainty food to eat, only grain and\nwild roots without salt. Can you eat these?\u201d \u201cYes, this also in time.\u201d\n\u201cAt home you have wine, tea, and hot water to drink. Can you give up\nall these and drink from the holes by the roadside?\u201d \u201cYes! In time I\ncan do even this.\u201d The sage added further, \u201cYou will have also to serve\nus, dig roots, and prepare our food, you who at home have always been\nserved. Can you eat [1] all this bitterness, even to becoming a\nservant?\u201d Chi Hsiao said earnestly, \u201cAll this I can and will do.\u201d \u201cOne\nthing more,\u201d said the man in yellow. \u201cI have a dreadful sore on my\nfoot. You will have to wash and dress that every day. I will show it to\nyou!\u201d It was indeed a shocking sight. For a moment Chi Hsiao Tang\u2019s\nheart failed him, but he resolutely put down the disgust and nausea\nwhich the sickening sore produced, and answered as before, \u201cI can dress\nit, Worthy Teacher.\u201d \u201cBut you must press the poison out with your lips.\nWill you do that?\u201d \u201cYes!\u201d \u201cThen try it now.\u201d As he stooped and put his\nlips to what seemed a most loathsome sore, behold! it was a beautiful\nripe and luscious peach, bound with invisible bands about the foot.\n\nWhen the two Worthies saw the settled purpose of the man they said,\n\u201cYou may remain with us. We will teach you how to become one of the\nPerfect Ones.\u201d At the close of his novitiate they sent him among the\nmountain people to help those in distress, to cheer the sad and\ndiscouraged, and found him always ready to serve as a messenger of the\ngods. Thus in a life of unselfish service of man was he made pure,\nuntil he reached that perfection which is absorption into the Divine.\n\n\n\n[1] A common Chinese expression for discomfort, pain, or sorrow.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE JADE TREASURE\n\n\nAmong the ancient dynasties of China that of the Chou, 1123 B.C., ranks\nas one of the most important. The name of its founder, Wu Wang, means\n\u201cWarrior Prince,\u201d and, though an usurper, he was a most exemplary\nmonarch. At that time there was constant conflict between the many\npetty states, or kingdoms, each striving for the first place.\n\nAn interesting story is told of one of the great treasures of the\nKingdom of Chou. One day a poor workman found in the mountains a piece\nof jade in the rough. He saw that, with polishing, it would be most\nbeautiful; and, making his way to the city, he sought the gatekeeper of\nthe Imperial Palace and asked to see his Emperor. As he declined to\ngive a reason, other than \u201cI have business,\u201d his request was refused.\nDay after day he came until the officer in charge mentioned the matter\nto the Emperor, who said that the next time he was to be brought before\nhim. Coming again some days later he was taken to the audience-room.\nHere he prostrated himself before his Emperor and, holding out the\nstone, said, \u201cMy Master, my Lord; in all the world under Heaven there\nis no second piece of jade equal to this.\u201d\n\nThe Emperor looked and laughed, saying, \u201cYou are a fool; that is only a\nstone, common stone.\u201d The man plead so hard that the Emperor sent out\nand called in some expert workmen in precious stones, and they also\nlooked lightly upon it and said, \u201cOnly stone, only stone.\u201d The Emperor\nthen commanded that the man be beaten and driven from the gate. This\nwas done. A few days after the man again appeared and plead his cause\nso earnestly that a more expert workman was called who said, after\ncareful examination, \u201cOnly stone, common stone.\u201d Then the Emperor was\nvery angry and commanded that the man\u2019s legs be cut off and that he be\nsent home. Months after the man was again carried to the palace gate;\nhere he pleaded so pitifully that the first workman in the kingdom be\ncalled, saying, \u201cIf he says it is not good you may have my life.\u201d The\nEmperor was deeply impressed with the man\u2019s persistence and had the\nmost expert lapidary known called. After looking at the stone carefully\nhe said, \u201cGreat Emperor, you are most favoured of the gods. I give you\njoy.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd why say you so?\u201d the Emperor asked.\n\n\u201cBecause,\u201d was the answer, \u201cthis stone is the most perfect jade under\nHeaven. You will be the envy of all the kingdoms of the earth.\u201d The\nEmperor was distrustful, but he commanded that it be cut and polished\nand the man who brought it be put in prison. After three days the\nmaster-workman returned and delivered, with great reverence, the stone,\nnow indeed the most beautiful in all the world. \u201cNo words can describe\nits loveliness. It is indeed from the gods, and only the gods should\nwear it,\u201d exclaimed the Emperor, as he held it in his hand. The poor\nworkman was given a great reward. Soon the fame of this wonderful\ntreasure spread over \u201call the earth\u201d; songs were composed about it;\nwonderful stories grew up around it until every king who heard of it\nwas filled with envy and sought, by fair or foul means, to possess it.\n\nAt last, when the Chou dynasty was going into a decline and the Chin\nwas coming into power, the Prince of Chin sent to the Prince of Chou\nand promised him twelve cities in exchange for the jade treasure. The\nPrince of Chou was very sad. He knew, if he did not accept the\nproposal, the Prince of Chin would make war on him and take it by\nforce, and he also felt sure he would not get the promised cities. In\nhis despair he called his most trusted minister, Lui Hsiang Jui, who,\nafter hearing the demand, said, \u201cMy great and mighty Prince, do not be\ntroubled or anxious; let me take the treasure to the Prince of Chin. I\npromise, on my life, to send it back to you if indeed he does not make\nover the promised cities.\u201d At last it was so decided, and the minister\nstarted on his errand.\n\nOn reaching the palace of the Prince of Chin, he was welcomed with\ngreat state and pomp. After the feasting and festivities were over he\npresented the jade with great reverence and asked for the twelve\ncities. The Prince of Chin said nothing in return, but feasted his eyes\non the beautiful stone. At last he said, \u201cThe residents of the inner\npalace\u201d (i.e., ladies) \u201chave heard of this wonderful stone and are most\nanxious to see it. I will send it in to them and you make ready for a\nsecond feast I have prepared in your honour.\u201d The minister went to the\napartments appointed for him, in great distress of mind. He felt sure\nthe Prince of Chin was not to be trusted, and he must think of some\nplan by which he could recover the jewel. At the feast nothing was said\nof the cities, though he inquired about them, and at last he pointedly\nasked, \u201cPrince of the Great Chin, do you know what it is in the jade\nthat makes it the most beautiful the gods have made?\u201d\n\nThe Prince replied, \u201cNo, tell me.\u201d\n\nThe minister replied, \u201cHave the jade brought and I will show you.\u201d\nImmediately a servant was sent to bring the jade and at the command of\nthe Prince handed it to the Minister of Chou, who, on feeling it once\nmore in his hand, put it in his bosom and sprang to his feet. Putting\nhis back against a pillar, he said, \u201cGreat Prince, you think to deceive\nmy master, the very Great Prince of Chou; you do not intend to give him\nthe twelve cities. With my life I will protect this treasure of my\ncountry, the pride of my Prince, and if any one attempts to take it\nfrom me I will dash it to the ground and destroy it first.\u201d\n\nThe Prince of Chin was afraid the jade would either be injured or\ndestroyed if a struggle for possession took place, so he caused the\nminister to be locked in his rooms until he should willingly give it\nup.\n\nThe news spread all through the kingdom. One day a poorly-clad stranger\ncame to the city and went from house to house begging. When he came to\nthe court where the Minister of Chou was confined, he managed to\ncommunicate with him and let him know that he was a countryman of his\nand would take the treasure home. The minister, Lui Hsiang Jui, folded\nit in a paper and gave it to him. The next day the Prince of Chin sent\nand demanded the jade. The minister said, \u201cTell your Great Prince I\nhave sent it back, as I promised, to my Liege Lord.\u201d At first they did\nnot believe his story and a great search was made, but they could find\nno trace of the treasure. The Prince of Chin was terribly angry and\ncommanded that the minister be killed; then, for fear of the Prince of\nChou, he allowed him to depart to his home and country, hoping that the\nfortunes of war would bring the desired jewel into his possession. He\nhimself did not live to secure it, but long years afterward one of his\ndescendants overthrew the Kingdom of Chou and the much desired and long\nstruggled for jade treasure, \u201cThe joy of the gods,\u201d came to the Kingdom\nof Chin.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHINESE HEROISM\n\n\nDuring the days between June 8th and August 14th, 1900 A.D., many brave\ndeeds were seen and applauded by the foreigners shut within the walls\nof Peking. They will go down in history and make fascinating the story\nof the siege of Peking. The world will never tire of reading of the\ncharges made to capture cannon that were sending their shells into the\nBritish Legation, and of the bravery of the Japanese who held the\nPrince\u2019s palace through fire, shot, and shell: Only twenty-five in\nnumber when they entered the city, by August 14th only three had not\nbeen killed or wounded. The brave British soldier went to his dangerous\npost not knowing when a stray bullet would pick him off. Only those who\nheld the outposts can know what bravery it required during some of\nthose awful night attacks. Those who worked in the hospital know what\ncourage it required in the poor wounded men to keep on their beds when\nit seemed as if the enemy were breaking in. The experiences of the\nbrave messengers have been given to the world; and the story of the\nrescue party, headed by Dr. Morrison of the London Times, by which\nseveral hundred Catholic Christians were saved, has also stirred the\nhearts of many.\n\nThe brave deed to which the writer calls attention is known to but few,\nwill probably never be recorded in song or story, and yet it took the\ntruest courage, and reveals as true heroism as was ever heralded\nabroad. Those who have read the events of the past summer carefully\nwill remember that the missionaries and many hundreds of converts were\nin semi-siege at the M. E. Mission for twelve days before going to the\nBritish Legation. We had a guard of twenty American marines. The chapel\nthere had been barricaded and was to be the place of retreat in case of\nan attack from Boxers. Captain Hall had asked some of the foreign\nladies to have charge of getting the Chinese women and children into\nthe chapel when the order was given. He also had told us we must\nimpress upon the women the necessity of keeping the children perfectly\nquiet. In case of an attack the crying of children would not only annoy\nthe soldiers, but might interfere with their hearing commands, and\nwould also give a range to the enemy. Much was said to the poor mothers\nalong this line because Chinese women, as a rule, have little thought\nand less method in training their children.\n\nJune 13th, about half-past six, we were startled by the news that the\nfront chapel was in flames; a moment or two after came the word for all\nwomen to get to the chapel. The Boxers had started down the street\ntoward the place we were in, but had been charged and driven back by\nthe marines, under Captain Hall. It was feared that they might rally\nfor another attack and come with a stronger force. We were given five\nminutes to get the women and children into the chapel. They came along\nvery quietly and without any disturbance.\n\nAfter we were all in we asked the soldiers on guard to let us go once\nmore through the house set aside for the Chinese. We feared some might\nhave been left behind. At first they said no, but finally gave us five\nminutes, and we fairly flew from court to court and room to room. At\nlast we reached one of the schoolrooms, and there in the dark, crouched\namong the seats, were two women and four little children. \u201cWhy are you\nhere, did you not get the message? Hurry, hurry, or we shall be too\nlate!\u201d were our questions and exclamations. \u201cYes,\u201d they said, \u201cwe did,\nbut we were afraid our children would cry and endanger all the others.\nOur babies are sick and cry all the time and we thought it better that\nwe die outside than to make others suffer with us.\u201d It took but a\nmoment to get the story, get them out from under the seat, and on the\nway to the chapel. We promised to help them with their little ones and\ntheir look of gratitude was most touching. The fathers of these\nchildren were out protecting the courts, and the two brave women were\nready to die rather than seek shelter when in so doing they might\nendanger and bring disaster upon others. When they decided to stay\noutside they were as true martyrs as any who went to the block. They\ngave up their lives in order, as they thought, to save others. \u201cGreater\nlove hath no man than this.\u201d\n\n\n   \u201cFor such Death\u2019s portal opens not in gloom,\n    But its pure crystal, hinged on solid gold,\n    Shows avenues interminable\u2014shows\n    Amaranth and palm quivering in sweet accord\n    Of human, mingled with angelic, song.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLITERARY GLORY\n\n\n   \u201cGive me the grace to bear my burden so\n      That men may learn the secret of my power,\n    And meet each trouble with their face aglow,\n      And voice their praises in the midnight hour;\n    For when our helplessness cries unto thee,\n      Thy power descends in Christ to set us free.\u201d\n\n\nFrom of old the scholars and writers of all lands have desired and\nsought for literary glory, and have considered it far more precious\nthan gold or gems. In no country has this been more true than in China.\nSome of the greatest of this land have passed through much privation\nand suffering to attain this end. It is not of one of these I wish to\nwrite.\n\n\u201cLiterary Glory\u201d was the name of a young girl who entered the Bridgman\nSchool twelve years ago. She was a bright, pleasant girl, and had many\nfriends. She was a good student and during the years of her school life\nher teachers came to see there was in her the making of a strong, true\nwoman. She was engaged to a young man of good character, but neither he\nnor his family had any interest in Christianity.\n\nSeven years ago she left her school home for the home of her husband\nwho lived in the village of Lu T\u2019ai, fifteen miles northeast of Peking.\nA year ago the writer visited her in her village and at night shared\nthe same room. It was a wonderful story she told as she poured out her\nheart to her friend. Would you could have heard it. I give it to you as\nbest I can remember. She said, \u201cWhen I went to my husband\u2019s home I made\nup my mind that I would work and pray with all my might to bring him\nand his mother to know and love Jesus. God only knows what I had to\nendure. I was so homesick for my school friends, so longed to go to\nchurch and prayer-meeting. There was only one other Christian in the\nplace and he was away most of the time. The day after I was married my\nhusband took all my books and cards and put them in the fire. I did not\ndare let him see me cry, but in the dead of night I poured it all out\nto God and was comforted.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn this home I have been but a servant to his grandmother, mother, and\nsisters, but my reward has come to me because they all love me, and my\nhusband and his mother have become Christians. I have had to work very\nhard from early morning till late at night. In summer time I have\nworked all day, ploughing, spading, hoeing, and cutting the grain. Five\nyears ago, during the heavy rains, our house fell down and we were too\npoor to hire enough men to rebuild, so I helped make the mud bricks and\nwhen they came to building the walls I sent up to them all the mud and\nplaster used. With my own hands I plastered the inside walls and\ncleaned up the court, but,\u201d said the dear girl as she took my hand, \u201cit\nis such a joy now and God has been good to me.\u201d\n\nMuch more we said in the hours of the night. How my heart ached as she\ntold me how she had longed with such a longing for Christian fellowship\nand companionship. She talked of her school life, and the comfort she\nhad as she recalled what she had learned. She was teaching her two\nlittle sisters, hoping they could go up to the Bridgman School.\n\nLittle did either of us dream how short the earthly joy was to be, or\nhow soon the Heavenly reward was to begin. Very early the next morning\nshe was up helping to get breakfast, and from her mother-in-law and a\nneighbour who came in I heard much that filled my heart with joy and\npride. The mother said, \u201cWhen I heard the girl my son was engaged to\nwas a Christian and in school I was very angry and wanted to break off\nthe engagement. I looked with great dread upon her coming to us; but I\nwant to tell you, she is the best daughter-in-law in the place. In all\nthese years we have not had a single quarrel and that cannot be said of\nany other family. My youngest children love her and mind her better\nthan they do me. I thought she would want to read all the time and so\nhad my son burn her books. I thought she would be above farm work, and\nall these years she has worked so hard and with never one word of\ncomplaint. One year we lost all our crops and in the winter had to send\nto the market town, six miles away, for the famine relief grain. She\nhad to go early, walk there and back, and carry our portion. She did\nnot have any warm clothes that winter, but she did not say anything.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d chimed in the neighbour, \u201cI had to go too that winter, and your\nWen Jung (Literary Glory) was so modest and ladylike, never pushing or\ncrowding, that the official asked who she was and gave her more grain.\u201d\nAgain the mother-in-law said, \u201cWhen I saw how she endured the\nhardships, always so strong and true, I knew it must be her religion,\nfor I too have been a daughter-in-law. She is always kind to the old\ngrandmother, who has a terrible temper. I have known Wen Jung to stay\nup all night to make her a pair of shoes. Yes, my daughter-in-law is\nthe only one of the family who has not felt her stick or been reviled\nby her. When I saw how her God helped her I just wanted to know Him.\nNow for months Wen Jung has had evening prayers and has taught me to\npray.\u201d\n\nIt was so delightful to sit there and hear all these sweet things of\none of our schoolgirls. It was a joy to see her pride in her poor home\nwhere everything was very clean and neat, and as she moved about\ngetting breakfast I thanked God for this \u201cnew woman\u201d in China. With\nwhat loving care she waited on us. How she did want to show her love;\nlater on, when the neighbouring women came in for a little service she\ncame and sat with her arms about me. I said to the women, \u201cShe is our\ngirl student and we love her.\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d said some one, \u201cshe is always\ntalking about her foreign friends. For years we have wanted to see you.\nYou may be proud of her, she is the best daughter-in-law in the place.\u201d\nAbout noon I left, promising to visit her on my return from the place I\nwas going to visit and hold a station class.\n\nAlas! the death of a member of our station called me to Peking by the\nshortest road, and the next month the Boxer storm burst upon us. After\nthe fury was spent and we could get news of those distant from us, we\nfound that nine of the ten who belonged to us in that place had been\ncut down. The Boxers came at sunrise one beautiful morning in June and\nthe mother-in-law was killed at once in her own room. \u201cLiterary Glory\u201d\nran out of the house and out into a field, but was overtaken and most\nbrutally hacked to pieces. Her husband was taken to a temple, tried,\nand beheaded. Brave, true-hearted, humble \u201cLiterary Glory.\u201d If ever any\none heard the \u201cwell done\u201d she did. She gained two souls for the Master\nshe loved and left a name that will be fragrant for long years in that\nvillage. Faithful in the small things, she filled the cup to\noverflowing by giving her life. What is her \u201cnew name\u201d up there, think\nyou? Is it \u201cHeavenly Glory\u201d? My young readers who have given your money\nfor Bridgman School and helped to educate this dear girl, does the\nresult of your investment satisfy you? Can you not say with her, \u201cMy\nreward has come to me, God has been very good to me\u201d?\n\n\n   \u201cWe take with solemn thankfulness\n    Our burden up, nor ask it less;\n    And count it joy that even we\n    May suffer, serve or wait for thee.\n        Thy will be done.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHOW THE DOG AND CAT CAME TO BE ENEMIES\n\n\nOf the thousand and one stories the old women of China love to tell\ntheir children and grandchildren, none is so great a favourite as the\none, \u201cHow the dog and cat came to be enemies for all time.\u201d The little\nblack eyes grow bright as diamonds as they listen, and no bedtime story\nof Mother Goose of Western lands is more treasured. Let me tell you the\nstory, and as you listen possibly you can see the dear little children\nof the great flowery kingdom, many of them looking like little flowers\ngathered about some old grandma who loves and pets them as do the\ngrandmas of all lands.\n\nIn the long, long ago there lived in the country a poor widow who had\nonly one son; but he was very kind and good to her, working early and\nlate to support her. She was his one thought, but with all his efforts\nit was but a poor living that he could give her, and it was a great\nsorrow to him. One day the gods said, \u201cSuch a son must be helped;\u201d so\nafter talking the matter over, one of them, dressed as a temple priest,\nwent to their gate and knocked. The widow came and opened the gate, but\nseeing the guest, she said, \u201cToo bad, too bad. I am so poor I cannot\ngive you any help to-day.\u201d To this the priest replied, \u201cI have not come\nto get your help but to help you.\u201d When the woman heard this, she said,\n\u201cI never heard of such a thing.\u201d The priest said, \u201cIt is a fact, and I\nnow give you this gold ornament. When you wish to cook a meal you put\nthis in the kettle, put on the cover, light your fire, and then repeat\nto the kettle several times what you want to eat. When the water boils\nthe food is ready; take off the cover and eat, and you and your son be\nhappy.\u201d With his joyful but incredible news he was gone. The old lady\nlooked at the gold ornament in her hand, thought of what had been said\nto her, and wondered if she was asleep and it was all a dream. To make\nsure, she said, \u201cI will try this charm and see if it will work or if\nthe priest has lied to me; I want some meat dumplings for supper.\u201d She\nput on her kettle, lighted her fire, and then repeated over and over\nagain till the water boiled, \u201cI want dumplings, meat dumplings. Come,\ndumplings, come.\u201d When the water boiled she took off the cover, and\nbehold the kettle was full of the most delicious-looking dumplings.\n\u201cAh,\u201d she said, \u201cwhat good fortune is mine, what good fortune is mine!\u201d\nNever had she tasted such food in all her poor life. After eating all\nshe could, she fed the cat and dog, and they, too, were wild with\ndelight. How their sides filled out, and they jumped upon her to\nexpress their thanks. \u201cNow,\u201d said she, \u201cI will get my son a good\nsupper,\u201d and again she repeated the process. When he came home looking\nso tired, she said, \u201cI have a good supper for you to-night, my son; all\nyou want and more.\u201d \u201cA good supper,\u201d thought he; \u201chow can that be,\nsince all we ever have is millet and cornmeal?\u201d But to his mother he\nsaid, \u201cNothing you make is bad; it all tastes good.\u201d When she took the\ncover off and told him to look, he could hardly believe his eyes. He\nhad seen such food but never tasted it. The mother said, \u201cSon, eat, and\nI will tell you all about our good luck.\u201d When she had concluded her\nstory she showed him the golden ornament. \u201cIt is from the gods, my\nmother, and they have taken pity on you. I am indeed a happy son.\u201d\n\nAfter this, day by day, the mother and son and the household cat and\ndog had plenty to eat and all was happiness in the little family.\n\nOne day some relatives came to call, and the old lady urged them to\nstay and eat with them. They refused at first, as they thought they\ncould not provide anything worth eating, but finally, at the old lady\u2019s\nmost earnest request, they consented. Such a feast of good things as\nshe prepared for them; how surprised they were! They exclaimed again\nand again at the delicate flavour of everything, and the quick time in\nwhich she had prepared them. At last one of them asked how she could\nafford to provide such expensive food, and the old lady in pride of\nheart brought forth her treasure and told her secret to the guests.\nThey were filled with envy, and later on, one day when the old lady was\naway from home, one of them went into her room and stole the precious\ncharm. Only the dog was in the room, and though he saw, he did not know\nhow great the loss was. When the mistress came home and went to get her\nson\u2019s supper, she discovered her loss. She was filled with great sorrow\nand distress. When her son returned she told him, and together they\nlooked everywhere. The old lady wept most bitterly and refused to be\ncomforted. The cat and dog came and begged for their supper, but she\npaid no attention to them. After that they had to eat millet and\ncornmeal again, and hard indeed it was, as they had become used to good\nfood. The cat and dog grew thin and refused the poor food. Finally the\ndog concluded that the reason was because the bright, pretty ornament\ntheir mistress always put in the kettle was no longer used and must be\nlost, and that was why the mistress cried so much. Then he remembered\nthe neighbour who came and went into the closet, and came out after a\nwhile with the treasure in his hand, and how he saw him put it in his\npocket. The dog then called the cat and told her all, but said, \u201cAlas!\nI am but a dog. I cannot get it, but you can, for you are able to get\non the roofs of houses and crawl in windows, and you must get it.\u201d When\nthe cat heard where it was, she said, \u201cBut the river, how can I get\nacross the river?\u201d to which he replied, \u201cI can swim, and when you come\nto the bank you get on my back and I will take you across.\u201d So together\nthey went. When they reached the river the cat jumped on the dog\u2019s back\nand he took her over safely. Then he said, \u201cI will wait here for you\nwhile you go to the house for our mistress\u2019 treasure.\u201d\n\nOver the roofs and along fences the cat went till she came to the right\nhouse; then she found a window open, and walking in she curled down in\na warm place to take note of what was going on and to make her plans.\nAfter a time she spied a rathole, and going over to it she waited\npatiently till a big mouse came out; then she sprang upon it and held\nit fast. How the poor thing plead for its life! The cat said, \u201cMouse, I\nwill save your life if you will do me a favour.\u201d The mouse promised\ngladly, and the cat told of the lost treasure and that it was in the\nhouse. The mouse said, \u201cI know about that; every day the family eat\ngood food; let me go and I will get it for you.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d said the cat, \u201cI\ncannot let you go, for you would not come back. I will hold you\nclosely, but you call your companions and tell them where it is, and\nwhen they bring it I will let you go.\u201d Then the mouse called out and\nall the mice came running, and when told what to do, away they went in\nsearch of the gold ornament. After a time they came back with it and\nthe poor mouse was allowed to go, while the cat made her way back to\nthe riverside with the ornament in her mouth.\n\nShe found the dog waiting for her, and when he saw the treasure in her\nmouth he barked and jumped for joy. Before she got on his back he said\nto her, \u201cWe are both very hungry; now, if in going over the river you\nsee a fish or anything good to eat, don\u2019t try to get it, for if you do\nyou will drop the treasure.\u201d This he repeated once and again and they\nstarted for the other side. Just before reaching the other side a fish\njumped up in the cat\u2019s face, and before she thought, she made a grab\nfor it and so lost the ornament in the river. How the dog did scold and\nhowl then; he was so hungry, and such visions of a good supper had\nfilled his eyes all the way over. The cat was so sorry, and promised\nshe would think of a way to get it if only he would not bark so loudly.\nLooking around she saw a big frog who looked very friendly, and to her\nshe told all her troubles and said, \u201cI know you like to do good deeds\nof mercy, so please help me.\u201d The frog agreed and jumped into the\nriver, and after a little returned with the lost charm. Then after\nthanking the frog, the cat and dog started home; so happy were they\nthey could not get over the ground fast enough. The cat mewed at the\ndoor, and when the old lady opened it and saw her with the lost\ntreasure, she caught her up, made a big fuss over her, took her in the\nhouse, and shut the door, thus leaving the dog out in the court; as she\ndid not know how much he had helped the cat, she did not pay any\nattention to him.\n\nSoon a big supper was ready, and once again the mother and son were\nhappy. This time in their gratitude they fed the cat first, all she\ncould eat, but forgot the dog, so absorbed were they in their own\nsupper and in planning a good, safe hiding-place for the most precious\ncharm. After a little the cat went out into the yard, and seeing the\npoor, hungry dog, she told him with great pride of all the good things\nshe had had to eat, and the nice things the family had promised her.\n\u201cThere is nothing left for you,\u201d said the cat, \u201cand if you are hungry\nyou had better fly around and find a bone.\u201d When the dog heard this he\nsprang upon her and bit her so she died immediately. Then he went and\ntold all the dogs about it. When they heard the story they were most\nindignant at such ingratitude, and then and there took a solemn vow of\neternal enmity to the cats for all time to come. Thus they have kept\ntheir vow, and to this day in all lands the dog is the enemy of the\ncat.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA DAUGHTER OF THE PRESENT\n\n\nIn Manchuria, not far from Mukden, lived a well-to-do farmer by the\nname of Lee. For some years the country had been much troubled by\nmounted banditti who terrorized the people, stealing from them right\nand left.\n\nMr. Lee called his neighbours together and after talking over the\nexisting conditions, they bound themselves together to act as watchmen\nand resist the thieves even to the death.\n\nMr. Lee then went to the neighbouring villages and helped them to form\nlittle companies of volunteers for the same purpose. This, in time,\nreached the ears of the robbers, and they laid their plans accordingly.\n\nOne night in the midst of the autumn harvest, while the farmers were\ncelebrating with wine and music the \u201charvest festival,\u201d the bandits\ncame upon the village. Mr. Lee called his followers together and a\ngreat fight took place in the moonlight. At last the robbers set fire\nto several houses in the village, and after stealing all they could\ncarry away with them, departed.\n\nEvery one was left weeping\u2014grain and clothing gone, and some with their\nhomes in ashes. Every one was so busy with his own losses that it was\ndaylight before it was known that Mr. Lee was missing. After much\nsearching in the fields and at the near villages, they decided that he\nmust have been taken captive and carried to the robbers\u2019 stronghold in\nthe mountains.\n\nNow, Mr. Lee had a little daughter, thirteen years old, called \u201cJade.\u201d\nShe was devoted to her father, and his constant companion. When, as the\nday wore on, he did not return she refused to be comforted. She pleaded\nwith her mother and brothers to go with her to the neighbours and get\nthem to form a rescue party, but the neighbours were so full of their\nown losses and fearful of another visit from the robbers that they\nrefused. They said, \u201cIf we go, we shall certainly be captured, and\neither killed or held for a big ransom.\u201d\n\nLittle Jade and her family knew it would do no good to appeal to the\nmagistrate, as such raids were frequent, and nothing was done to\nprevent or punish; and all the family but the little daughter made up\ntheir minds that nothing could be done, and they must await whatever\nthe gods had in store for them.\n\n\u201cNot so,\u201d thought little Jade; \u201cI will either save my father or die\nwith him.\u201d Without saying anything to the other members of the family\nshe learned from questioning the villagers the location of the \u201cTigers\u2019\nNest,\u201d as the fastness of the thieves was called. She then started off\nalone and after miles of weary walking she reached the place at\nnightfall. She made direct for the cave and prostrating herself before\nthe entrance she began to weep and wail for her father. The robbers\ncame and looked fiercely at her. How she pleaded with those\nhard-hearted men! They offered her food and money to go away; but she\nonly pleaded the harder. They then became angry and tried to drive her\naway. For two days and nights she knelt in front of the cave; she would\nneither eat nor sleep. Many of the robbers were fathers and their\nhearts grew tender toward the little maid as hour after hour her wail\nfell upon their ears, and they saw her little face swollen and drawn\nwith long weeping and fasting.\n\nAt last the robber captain could endure it no longer, and after one\nfinal effort to drive her away, he commanded that Mr. Lee be set free,\nand that he and his little daughter be escorted beyond the hill region\nby the robber band. At the close of the fourth day they arrived at\ntheir home, where there was great rejoicing and much praise for brave\nlittle Jade.\n\nWhen Jade was seventeen the young man she was engaged to marry died and\nshe took the vow of \u201cwidowhood,\u201d and also that she would help support\nthe aged father and mother of her betrothed. Although she had never\nseen any of the family this was considered very meritorious in Jade,\nand she was held up as a model girl to all others in the region.\n\nShe took in sewing and embroidery and the money she thus earned was\nsent to the old people. She is at present living near Mukden, and it is\nrumoured that she is to be one of the teachers in a girls\u2019 school to be\nopened in that city.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nT\u2019ANG SUNG\u2019S JOURNEY TO GET THE BUDDHIST CLASSICS\n\n\nIn the year 629 A.D., a very devout monk, T\u2019ang Sung, hoping to achieve\nmerit by which he might avoid death and that he might become one of the\nEternal Holy Ones, accepted the proposal of his Emperor that he should\ngo to the west in search of the famous Buddhist Classics.\n\nAlone he set out on his journey to the Yellow River where the caravans\nto India were wont to form. On his way he met a wonderful monkey. The\nmonkey asked the priest where he was going, and on being told, decided\nthat he would go along with the good priest! \u201cBut what can you do? Why\nshould you go?\u201d asked the monk.\n\nThe monkey replied, \u201cI am a famous jumper. With one jump I can touch\nthe heavens; I can walk on water and on the air; I can change myself\ninto seventy-two different shapes.\u201d After some more conversation the\nmonk consented to the company of the monkey, and giving him the name\nSun Hou, he fastened a string to his neck and started on his way. The\nmonkey was very changeful in his disposition and the monk had a hard\ntime making him mind. After going a few miles he met a holy man who\nsaid, \u201cIf he does not mind you I will tell you something to say to him\nwhich will make his head ache, and he will go quietly with you.\u201d Going\nalong a few more miles they met a pig, and on hearing from the monkey\nwhere they were going, said he also would go and help find the books.\n\n\u201cWhat can you do to help?\u201d asked T\u2019ang Sung.\n\n\u201cI can catch thieves and have power to do many strange things,\u201d was the\nreply; \u201cand the only trouble with me is that I walk slowly.\u201d The monk\nconsidered the question, and as he did not like to be unkind to a pig\nsaid he could go. Afterward on the road they met a very stupid simple\npriest, and he plead so hard to be allowed to join the party that the\nmonk also consented; thus the four travelled slowly along until they\nmet a white horse. He asked the errand of the strange company, and\nafter hearing the story, said he also would go and T\u2019ang Sung might\nride him. The foolish priest carried the baggage, the pig carried the\ngun, and the monkey was sent on ahead to make all the arrangements.\n\nOn the road to India they had to pass seventy-two caves, where demons\nlived, who were ever on the watch for travellers.\n\nOne day they travelled till night; all day they had been without food,\nand as darkness came on and no village was in sight the monkey said, \u201cI\nwill jump and see where a village is.\u201d He gave a great jump and saw\nthey were not far from a village; he heard a great noise which\nfrightened him; he gave another jump and saw the village was on the\nbank of a great river eight hundred yards wide. The monkey returned and\ngot his companions and led them to the home of the rich man of the\nvillage.\n\nHe struck the bell the priest carried, and the servants, on opening the\ngate and seeing the queer procession, were very much frightened. Sun\nHou said, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid. We are from the Emperor, and going to India\nto get the sacred books of the great Buddha. We want something to eat\nand a place to sleep, as we are very weary.\u201d\n\nThe owner of the place replied, \u201cI am able to give what you ask, but\nnot to-night as I am in great trouble.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is it? Perhaps I can help you,\u201d said the monkey.\n\nThen said the rich man, \u201cFor long years a terrible demon has lived in\nthe river and every year we have to prepare a young boy and a young\ngirl as an offering for him or he will destroy the village by causing\nthe river to overflow. To-night is the yearly sacrifice and it falls on\nme. I am a large householder, but I have only one little boy and one\nlittle girl, and my heart is breaking with my grief, but I must give\nthem up to save the lives of the many in the village.\u201d Sun Hou said,\nafter a moment\u2019s thought, \u201cDon\u2019t be anxious. I have a plan. Get us\nsomething to eat.\u201d\n\nAfter eating, Sun Hou commanded that the children should be brought\ninto the room. After looking at them Sun Hou said to the pig, \u201cYou\nimpersonate the girl and I will the boy;\u201d the pig shook himself three\ntimes, and the father said, \u201cWell done.\u201d Soon after the procession,\nwhich had been forming in the village, came for them, with drums\nbeating and banners flying. They carried the supposed children to the\ntemple on the river bank. Cooked chicken was placed on the table, the\nincense lighted, then all went out and the door was locked.\n\nThen when all was quiet Sun Hou said to the pig, \u201cYou take one side and\nI will the other and don\u2019t be afraid.\u201d About midnight there was the\nsound of a great wind, and then Sun Hou said, \u201cBe careful, the demon,\nYao Ching, is coming.\u201d Immediately the door opened and a great fishlike\nbeing came into the temple. They heard him say, \u201cIn the past I have\ntaken the boy first, but to-night I shall eat the girl first.\u201d With\nthat he seized the girl, who immediately struck him, and then, with the\nhelp of the boy, fought a terrible battle and injured him so that he\nfled, leaving two great fins on the floor.\n\nThe river-demon sought out the king of the demons and told him the\nstory. He said, \u201cYou call up a great cold wind, bring snow and ice and\nfreeze over the river, then when they get half-way over the river, you\ncall your friends to help you and put your strength together and cause\nthe ice to give way and precipitate them all into the river.\u201d\n\nThe demon was pleased with the plan and in three days the ice was so\nthick that farmers could cross in their carts. All this time the four\nstrange companions were living in great comfort with the rich man of\nthe house, who gave them many rich presents and much food. On the\nfourth day they started on, and when they got to the middle of the\nriver the ice broke and all went into the water except the monkey, who\ngave a great jump and landed on the top of a high mountain. The others\nwere taken captive, and put in a deep cave by the river-demon to wait\nuntil they had caught Sun Hou, when all should be eaten together. Day\nafter day, Sun Hou went down on the river bank and reviled them. Many\nwere the fierce battles they fought but neither could get the victory.\nAt last one day Sun Hou took a mighty jump and arrived at the home of\nthe Goddess of Mercy, who was in her palace in the Southern Sea.\n\n\u201cAh!\u201d said she; \u201cI knew you were coming. I have waited for you.\u201d She\nwas making a fish-basket of bamboo. When she heard his troubles she\nsaid, \u201cWait. I am making this great fish-basket to catch him in. He\nused to live in my sea, and is my special food fish, but he rebelled\nand ran away and for many years has lived in the great river. You go\nback and call him and fight again, and I will come and get him in my\nbasket.\u201d In the terrible battle which followed the Goddess of Mercy let\nfrom Heaven a basket and took him in and up to Heaven.\n\nThen Sun Hou called some of the Heavenly Soldiers to his aid, and they\nwent with him and found his companions in a cave, but alas! the men\ncould not swim. While Sun Hou was pondering, a big turtle came along\nand said, \u201cI knock my head to you. You are my preserver. Many years ago\nthis cave was mine, but the river-demons took it, and now, to show my\nthanks, if you will all get on my back I will carry you over the\nriver.\u201d This they did, and on the way the turtle said, \u201cYou are going\nto India to find out how one can live forever? Will you ask the\nmerciful Buddha what my after-life is to be like?\u201d Sun Hou promised,\nand as they would need help in crossing on their return he was to look\nout for them.\n\nAs they travelled on they came to the country of P\u00fa T\u00e1o. The king asked\nthem where they were going and also demanded a proof of their Imperial\nmission. Now, this king had three famous ministers called Fox, Deer,\nand Sheep. They said these persons must first prove their strength\nbefore they could go on their way. To the question as to whether their\ncontest was to be of military skill or a contest of mind, the monkey\nchose the latter. A platform thirty feet high was built. Then Minister\nFox said to T\u2019ang Sung, \u201cWe two will go up there and see which can sit\nwithout moving an eyelash for the longest time; the one who moves first\nis to be killed.\u201d While thus sitting the sheep changed himself into a\nworm and crawled up on the bald head of the priest, and bit his head in\nmany places. T\u2019ang Sung was most uncomfortable and his face showed it.\n\nNow, Sun Hou saw the look and so changed himself into a bird, flew up\nover the monk, and seeing the worm, flew down and in picking it up saw\nthat it was the \u201cMinister Sheep,\u201d to whom he said, \u201cIf this is the\ntrick I will show you what I can do,\u201d and changed himself into a\ncentipede, and crawled upon Minister Fox. He entered his nose, got into\nhis ear, and up into his head, and so distracted did the minister\nbecome that he could not endure the pain, and threw himself from the\nplatform and thus died. When the \u201cMinister Deer\u201d saw the calamity he\nsaid, \u201cOur great elder brother is dead, I will see what I can do,\u201d so\nhe said, \u201cLet us see who can cut his head off, throw it away, get it\nagain and grow it on.\u201d Sun Hou said, \u201cThat is good. It is not the\nmonk\u2019s turn; this is my turn.\u201d\n\nMinister Deer asked, \u201cWho will try first, you or I?\u201d\n\nSun Hou replied, \u201cI can cut my head off and grow it on again ten\ntimes.\u201d The Deer replied, \u201cI can only once.\u201d So Sun Hou said, \u201cI will\ntry first,\u201d and immediately cut off his head, upon which Minister Deer\nsaid, \u201cI can only cut mine off once and I won\u2019t do it now.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf you don\u2019t, we will fight,\u201d said Sun Hou.\n\nThus driven, he cut his head off, and the monkey, changing to a dog,\nran away with it and was gone two hours,\u2014so long that the man died\nalso.\n\nThen said Minister Sheep, \u201cYou must conquer me or I shall kill you.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d said Sun Hou, \u201cwhat shall we do? You decide.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d said the Sheep, \u201cwe will build a fire, put on a big kettle of\noil, and when it boils we will take turns in getting in and staying two\nhours. The one who can do it will be the victor.\u201d\n\nSo all was ready and Sun Hou got in; before getting in he repeated a\ncharm to the dragon, who came and changed him into a nail and kept the\noil in the bottom of the kettle cold while it boiled on top. After two\nhours Minister Sheep said, \u201cHe is dead,\u201d and getting a skimmer he felt\naround and brought out a nail, which changed to a man, saying, \u201cAh, I\nwas asleep; having such a good rest. Now it is your turn and I shall\nnot sleep any more.\u201d Thus the Minister Sheep was obliged to get in.\nThen Sun Hou called the king and said to him, \u201cLook at your great\nministers; how can you expect the country to grow and improve when your\nthree greatest ministers are such demons? See what frauds they are, and\nhow they impose on you and the people.\u201d\n\nTo this the king replied, \u201cI see you are great men and wonderful. You\ncannot go yet; it is a famine year and you must call down rain for us.\u201d\n\nSun Hou said, \u201cI will go to Heaven and plead with the great Lord of the\nHeaven (Y\u00fc Wang).\u201d\n\nWith a jump he was in Heaven; to his petition the great God said,\n\u201cThere is no rain for Thibet for three years.\u201d After much pleading from\nSun Hou the God replied, \u201cI will give you two inches only.\u201d\n\nWhen the king heard this he said, \u201cThat is not enough, I must have\nmore. If you can get two inches you can get more, and then I will let\nyou go.\u201d So Sun Hou said, \u201cI will get you two feet.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is too much,\u201d replied the king, \u201cbut a little more than we need\nis no great matter, only get it.\u201d When Sun Hou told the great God of\nRain, he said, \u201cI will not let them say how much I am to give, I will\ngive enough.\u201d\n\nWhen Sun Hou took this message to the king he thanked them and let them\ngo on their way, promising to entertain them on their return.\n\nThey went on their journey; the monk, T\u2019ang Sung, riding the white\nhorse, the priest praying and reading. At night they came to the foot\nof a high mountain where there was a temple where lived a demon. This\ntemple was called the \u201cTemple of Thunder.\u201d Sun Hou told the priest he\ndid not think the temple was safe, but the priest said it must be\nbecause it was a temple, and he was sure they would find rest and food.\nWhen they saw the name of the temple they knocked their heads and went\nslowly forward until they saw what seemed a great image of Buddha. When\nSun Hou came close to it he said, \u201cThat is not the Buddha,\u201d and refused\nto knock his head. Just then a voice said, \u201cWhy do you not knock your\nhead?\u201d to which Sun Hou replied, \u201cI do not think you look like Buddha.\u201d\nImmediately they heard a bell strike and something was let down from\nabove and enveloped them in darkness. Sun Hou felt of it; it was hard\nlike copper. They walked all around it but could not get out. They\nexerted all their combined strength but could not remove the darkness.\nThen Sun Hou repeated his wonderful charm and twenty-eight soldiers\nfrom the great lord of the Heaven suddenly came in the shape of a great\ncow. Sun Hou called to him to make a hole with his horn; this he did,\nbut when he pulled out his horn the hole closed up; again he did it,\nand Sun Hou changed into a mustard seed and was pulled out by the cow.\nThen he let the soldiers out of the iron cow\u2014and the great demon got a\ngreat string and bound them and put them in a cave. Sun Hou gradually\ngrew smaller and his rope loosened and he escaped; with one jump he\nreached Heaven and brought down many soldiers from the great God. When\nthe great demon saw them he said, \u201cI am not afraid of you, even if you\nare from Heaven. I will yet eat you.\u201d\n\nAmong the Heavenly Soldiers was one very great one, and he wore a wheel\nof iron on one foot and a wheel of wind on the other; on his wrist was\na beautiful bracelet and he wore a Heavenly chain. A terrible battle\nwas fought in the air between the soldiers of the demons and the\nHeavenly band. The great demon threw up his charmed lasso and brought\ndown the bracelet, and again, and brought down the chain. Then Sun Hou\nsaw him lasso all the Heavenly Soldiers, and just as the string was to\nenvelope him he gave a jump and turned a somersault\u2014and landed on top\nof a mountain. There he gave himself up to despair in a cave. Along\ncame a man who asked why he was crying and he said, \u201cI promised to take\na monk to India and to protect him. He and his companions are bound and\nin a cave. I got twenty-eight servants from the great God, they are\nalso bound; and now all the Heavenly Soldiers have been defeated and\nare bound.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are too impatient,\u201d replied the man. \u201cDo you not remember that a\ngreat iron beam can be rubbed to a fine needle if you but take time?\nYou go to the demons who live in these caves in the mountains, and find\nout what kind of a demon this is.\u201d\n\nSun Hou went to them all and at last found one who said he knew the\ndemon of the Thunder temple. He had one time been his servant but had\nstolen his treasure and run away. \u201cYou can only take him by craft and I\nwill help you. He is most fond of melons, and we will plant some melons\nand test him. I will be the gardener and you go and call him out.\u201d\n\nThen Sun Hou went out and reviled the demon and he came out in great\nanger; Sun Hou changed into a fine melon and the demon, seeing him, ate\nhim. Sun Hou said, \u201cNow I will tear your heart out of you.\u201d In his\ngreat distress the demon pleaded so hard that Sun Hou came out by the\ndemon\u2019s ear and together they fought all over the melon patch in the\nmoonlight. After the battle, worn and weary, Sun Hou liberated the\nsoldiers and his companions, and then looking about him saw there was\nno mountain, no temple, but a fine restful road with eating-houses and\nrest-houses on the way.\n\n\u201cAh, monk,\u201d said he, \u201cso it ever is with earth\u2019s power and glory. It is\nall vanity\u2014vanity\u2014empty\u2014empty.\u201d\n\nIn restful travel they reached their journey\u2019s end and found the book.\nOn their return journey they had many adventures, but they had all\ngrown wiser and learned much. When they reached the bank of the river\nthe turtle was there waiting to carry them across. They got on his back\nand when half-way over he asked if they had found the \u201cBook\u201d and seen\nthe \u201cgreat Buddha.\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d they said. Then the turtle asked them if\nthey had remembered his request, and when they said they had forgotten\nit, the turtle was so angry he dropped down from under them and left\nthem in the water. They had a terrible time getting to the other side,\nand as the book was paper all they could rescue of it were the words,\n\u201cAh-me t\u2019on Fo,\u201d and this they told the Emperor was all there was to\nthe Classic.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA STORY OF OLD CHINA\n\n\nIn the reign of Chia Ching, Emperor of China from 1522 to 1537 A.D.,\nthere lived in Peking a powerful official by the name of Tu (\u201cDu\u201d).\nUnknown to him he had a great enemy whose daughter was one of the wives\nof the Emperor and who was himself the teacher of the Emperor. This\nman, Yen Sung, was the most powerful man in the Empire at that time,\nand also one of the most unscrupulous. He made and unmade officials and\nno appointment could be secured except through his influence. He was\nvery rich, and lived in one of the largest and finest palaces. His\nentertainments were second only to the Emperor\u2019s.\n\nMr. Tu was appointed to superintend the distribution of famine relief\nin the province of Shan Tung. The silver was inclosed in logs, and\nloaded on long carts. The caravan had just reached the city gate when\nthey were met by Yen Sung and his riders, just returning from a feast.\nHe inquired of Mr. Tu when he was going, and on learning that the\nrelief caravan was just starting, he said:\n\n\u201cIt is too late for you to go to-night; come to my palace, all of you,\ncarts and all, and spend the night. We will have a big feast, and you\ncan get an early start in the morning.\u201d\n\nThere seemed no harm in this, and as no one liked to refuse Yen Sung\nanything, they decided to accept his invitation.\n\nThat night after the great feast was over and, much under the influence\nof wine, all were sleeping, Yen Sung, with his steward and henchmen,\nremoved the relief money from the logs, placed broken bricks in the\nholes, and closed the logs as they were before.\n\nEarly in the morning the caravan started, and when but a short distance\nfrom the city they were overtaken by Yen Sung and his servants, who\ninquired how much silver was being taken, also made the demand to see\nit. Mr. Tu said that he had in his charge forty thousand pieces of\nsilver; and caused the logs to be opened as proof, only to find to his\ndismay the silver gone and brick in its place. Yen Sung immediately\nseized him, took him before the Emperor, accused him of using the\nfunds, and punishment by death was pronounced. A few days later he was\nsecretly beheaded and his body was placed in a temple near one of the\ncity gates.\n\nMr. Tu had a son, who was married to the daughter of a well-known\nofficial who, on the murder of the father-in-law of his daughter, came\nforward and saved the family from the murderous hands of Yen Sung. The\nEmperor punished the family by changing their name to Kao and this son\nwas called Kao Ching Chi. He was a student by nature, and on the death\nof his father and the confiscation of his property, spent all of his\ntime at the \u201cHall of Classics,\u201d studying for promotion.\n\nHis young wife, Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying, was very beautiful, according to\ntradition in song and story one of the most beautiful in all the\nEmpire; not only noted for her beauty of face and form, but even more\nbeautiful character. (The story of her life, set in song and always\nsung in tears, praises her in words seldom given to any woman.)\n\nOne day after the death of her father-in-law she took a serving-woman\nwith her, and went in her chair to weep at his grave, and burn incense\nfor his departed spirit. On the road her chair passed Nien Chi, the\nwicked steward of Yen Sung, who was out with some of his companions for\na ride. He caught a glimpse of the beautiful woman inside, and said to\nhis companions:\n\n\u201cCome on; we will follow her and see who she is and where she is\ngoing.\u201d\n\nWhen they reached the temple he saw her at the altar, prostrating\nherself and worshipping; kneeling beside her he said:\n\n\u201cI too have come for worship.\u201d\n\nY\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying immediately rose and went to the grave of her\nfather-in-law, followed by the servant. Together they wept and knocked\ntheir heads, but only to be joined almost at once by Nien Chi. They\nmoved to the other side of the grave, and again he followed, upon which\nshe said to her woman:\n\n\u201cThis man means to annoy us; he is an evil man.\u201d\n\nThe serving-woman turned on him and said:\n\n\u201cYou are annoying my lady, you certainly lack all marks of the superior\nman,\u201d and with that she threw a handful of incense ashes in his eyes,\nand taking her lady by the hand, they ran to the chair and told the\nchairmen to go home at once as fast as possible.\n\nNien Chi was very angry, his eyes pained him furiously, and as soon as\nhe could open them with any comfort he called to his friend:\n\n\u201cMount at once and give chase.\u201d\n\nSome of his companions did not want to, but he insisted and, owing to\nthis delay and the ashes in his eyes, they did not overtake the chair\ntill just as it entered the gate of the ladies\u2019 home.\n\nThe gatekeeper closed the gate and did not notice the horsemen just\nentering their street. Nien Chi inquired of a \u201cstreet keeper\u201d who lived\nin the place, and great was his delight when he heard that it was the\nfamily hated by his master. He sought the latter on returning home,\ntold of his morning\u2019s experience, of the beauty of the lady, and his\ndesire to secure her if possible.\n\nYen Sung was greatly pleased, and soon a way was opened to degrade the\nofficial who had saved his enemy\u2019s family. He said to his steward,\n\u201cThis is well; you shall have her for wife, and I will help you and\nthus reward your many efforts in my behalf.\u201d Together these two\nblack-hearted men plotted against the life and happiness of the one\nlittle woman, who did not tell her student-husband of the experiences\nof the day, as she did not like to trouble him when his heart was so\nsad.\n\nA few days later a servant of Nien Chi\u2019s came with a letter and some\nvery beautiful presents. The servant said \u201chis master had heard much of\nthe wisdom of young Mr. Kao; he was most desirous of calling on him,\nmaking his acquaintance, and would he please accept the small,\ninsignificant gifts as an expression of friendship.\u201d Mr. Kao inquired\nwho his master was, and when he learned it was the steward of the great\nYen Sung, who was almost as powerful as the Emperor, and at whose word\na man was made an official or deposed, he was greatly troubled, but he\ndid not dare refuse. A day was set when Nien Chi was to call, and he\ncame in great pomp and glory, and was invited to the guest house, where\nMr. Kao received him.\n\nTogether they talked on the surface of many questions, Nien Chi, in a\nmost subtle manner, praising the wisdom and great insight of his host.\nMuch wine was consumed, especially by Mr. Kao.\n\nThe latter part of the call Nien Chi said, \u201cShall we not seal our\nfriendship by the rite of blood brother? You are older than I, so\naccording to our custom it would be proper for you to introduce me to\nyour wife, my sister, if indeed you will stoop to accept so stupid a\nman as a brother.\u201d\n\nTo this Mr. Kao replied, \u201cThe lady, your sister, is in the inner court\nwith her women, another day you may meet her.\u201d\n\nNien Chi urged Mr. Kao to introduce him that day, but the latter\nchanged the subject of conversation, and then Nien Chi proposed that\nthey should see who could take the most wine.\n\nAlas! Mr. Kao did not dream of his plan, and very soon was fast asleep;\nseeing this, Nien Chi went to the family court in the rear and seeing\nher with her women, he said:\n\n\u201cMost beautiful of great sisters, I salute you.\u201d\n\nY\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying immediately arose, and seeing the man who had troubled her\nso, there in her own court, she said:\n\n\u201cWho are you, and how do you dare to come into this inner court?\u201d and\nthen turning to a servant, she said, \u201cCall your master.\u201d\n\nNien Chi smiled and said, \u201cDon\u2019t be anxious, lady, your husband is my\ngood brother by rite of blood. We have drank the wine and made the\ncompact and that, you know, as he is older than I, gives me a right to\nmeet you and call you \u2018sister.\u2019 My great brother is now asleep. He is a\npoor, stupid man who cannot let wine alone. Now, most beautiful and\nvirtuous of all women, leave him to his books and marry me. You shall\nhave, by promise of my master, the great Yen Sung, the finest of the\nland, in robes of silk and satin, servants by tens, jewels fit for an\nempress, and a most royal home.\u201d\n\nIn great fear and rage the lady spurned him, and called to her women to\nbring her husband, asleep or awake.\n\nThe loud voices had awakened him, and when the women met him, telling\nof the fright of their lady, he picked up a stick and, entering the\ncourt, demanded how he had dared enter there.\n\nY\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying said to him, \u201cHow did you dare enter friendship\u2019s bonds\nwith such as he? Take him from my court and presence at once. He is\nmore hateful to me than a serpent.\u201d\n\nNien Chi saw his plan had failed and, with rage and vowing vengeance,\nhe took his departure and once again sought his master.\n\nThat night a slave in the home was bound and killed and taken in the\nearly morning and placed against the gate of Mr. Kao\u2019s house. Mr. Kao\nalways went early to the \u201cHall of the Classics,\u201d and that morning when\nhe opened the gate the dead body fell into Kao\u2019s court; Nien Chi and\nsoldiers were waiting just around the corner for this moment, and\nimmediately, before Mr. Kao had taken in the situation, they had seized\nhim and thrown him into prison, on charge of killing one of the great\nSung\u2019s servants. He was tried and condemned to death.\n\nThe beautiful Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying saw through the plan and disposed of the\nplace at once for a small sum of money and, taking one loyal, good\nserving-woman, she sought her father.\n\nEverything was done that could be done to save her husband; her father\nhad lost much of his property and standing, and could help but little.\n\nIt seemed as though nothing could be done to save him when, at the last\nmoment, a \u201cgreat day of forgiveness\u201d was announced on the birth of an\nheir to the throne. This did not mean freedom, but instead of death\ncame banishment for life to some other and distant province.\n\nThe news was made known to the wife by a Mr. Wang, an old-time friend\nof the family, and he arranged with her a plan by which she might have\na parting visit with her husband; this was to be in a cemetery just out\nof Peking and off a little from the great road over which his cart was\nto go. She had not been allowed to see him in prison, though she had\nused every means possible.\n\nWhen the day set to take him away came, she went with her woman to the\nplace arranged, and then waited, with sad and heavy heart, for the cart\nwhich was to bring her husband for a short talk and then take him away\nfrom her forever. When Mr. Wang told Mr. Kao of the plan, he said, \u201cShe\nwon\u2019t come; a woman is like a garment that one can take off at pleasure\nand it is all the same to them.\u201d\n\nLittle he knew the true-hearted woman, or how she would prove her\nfidelity, that would hand her name down to all coming wives as the\npattern of all that is most truly virtuous.\n\nWhen the cart reached the place, by the use of a little money Mr. Wang\narranged with the carter and escort soldiers to allow Mr. Kao to get\nout of the cart and have this quiet last talk with his wife.\n\nMuch to his surprise, Mr. Kao found his wife waiting for him. She came\nforward and, kneeling before him, she said, \u201cWe are about to separate,\npossibly forever; what commands have you for me? I will follow them to\nthe letter.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have no commands,\u201d replied her husband. \u201cOur affairs have reached\nthis state: we can do nothing and be nothing to each other. I am\nbanished for life; you cannot go with me, and I cannot help you. There\nis no use in our talking. You will forget me. Our fate is unlucky, the\ngods and man are against us.\u201d\n\nWith tears streaming from her eyes, and her beautiful face full of\ntrouble, she said, \u201cAlas! alas! You do not believe in and trust me,\nthat I will be true to you. What can I do to prove to you that I mean\nwhat I say? You say I am beautiful; the gods have made me so. Because I\nam so you think that fair promises of wealth and luxury will buy me. If\nI were homely no one would want me; see, this I do to show how true is\nmy heart to you,\u201d and before he saw what she was about she took some\nscissors from her sleeve and dug out one of her beautiful eyes, and\nthen, raising her poor disfigured face to his, she said, as she tried\nto smile, \u201cDo you believe me, is it not proof enough? Would anybody\nwant me now?\u201d\n\nHer husband was greatly moved and, as he tried to stop the flow of\nblood, said, \u201cYou are a daughter of the gods, the most true of all\nwomen.\u201d\n\nThey then talked over their sorrows, and she said, \u201cIf in a few months\u2019\ntime the gods give us a son, what is your wish to name him? If a little\ndaughter comes, name her also and your wishes.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have no wishes or commands, you are able to instruct and have wisdom\nfor all. If the gods give us a son, call him Ting Lang.\u201d\n\nThe wife said, \u201cAlas! I may not follow you into exile, I shall go to my\nold home, but if the child is a son, when he is old enough I shall send\nhim to you.\u201d\n\nThen she took from her sleeve a small mirror, a comb, and a\nhandkerchief. These she divided into two parts, gave one part to her\nhusband, and placed the other in her inner pocket.\n\n\u201cWhen a boy finds you, producing these, you will know who he is, and\nwherever you are you must own him.\u201d\n\nWith this and many tears they embraced each other, then with much\nweeping she knelt before him, and touching her head to the ground three\ntimes, she said her good-bye.\n\nHer husband raised her and gave her into the command of the\nserving-woman, with many words of instruction to the latter, who was in\ngreat distress at the condition of her mistress\u2019s eye. He told her what\nmedicine to get, and how to care for it, and made her promise to stay\nwith her lady as long as she lived. And then the friend came and\npromised the wife to stay by her husband to the end of the journey and\ncare for him, and urged her to go home as it was late and the cart must\nbe starting.\n\nWith one hand covering the poor wounded eye, the two women watched the\ncart until it was lost in a bend of the road, and the servant said, \u201cMy\ngreat lady, return to your home. Sad, indeed, is your fate, but the\ngods know all.\u201d Together they went back to the city, and some weeks\nlater the poor heart was comforted by the birth of her little son.\n\nYears passed; Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying\u2019s parents died, after great reverses and\nreduced to poverty, all by their powerful enemy. The mother took in\nsewing and washing and most of all gave herself to the care of her son,\nand in this quiet manner twelve years came and went. No word had come\nfrom her husband and no word of their life-story did the mother tell\nher son. Their great enemy year by year grew richer, and more powerful,\nand more unscrupulous.\n\nThe year little Ting Lang was twelve the display of the Lantern Feast,\nthe fifteenth of the first month, was most beautiful, and among all\ndisplays none exceeded Yen Sung\u2019s. Hither little Ting Lang bent his\nsteps, and as he was running along he pushed against a small boy who\nfell down, and at once began in great anger to revile Ting Lang\u2019s\nfather. Little Ting Lang did not understand what he said, as his mother\nalways told him that his father was away on government business. He no\nlonger cared to see the beautiful lanterns. Home he went as fast as he\ncould, and rushing in, he prostrated himself before his mother, and\nimplored her to tell him who his father was and why he didn\u2019t come\nback.\n\nThe mother\u2019s heart was centred in the boy. He was \u201cthe point of her\nheart,\u201d as fond Chinese mothers say when the Western mother would say\n\u201cmy sweetheart.\u201d Taking him by the hand she raised him up, and said,\nwith all the mother-love shining in her eyes, \u201cMy son, you are too\nyoung yet to know all. Some day when you are a little older I will tell\nyou the history of our sad lives. We have a great and powerful enemy\nand it is only by this quiet living that you and I have lived in peace.\nWait a little longer, son, and you shall know all.\u201d\n\nThe boy was quick and impetuous and said, \u201cMother, unless you tell me\nnow I cannot live. I am no longer a child. I will to know now.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot now, my son,\u201d was the quiet but sad reply.\n\nHearing this, the boy rushed from the room and out into the back court\nwhere there was a well and, as he ran by, he kicked a brick into the\nwell and dashed into a grape arbour.\n\nThe mother, rushing out after him, only able to see with one eye, and\nnot seeing her boy, but only hearing the splash as the brick struck the\nwater, concluded that he had jumped into the well. Sitting down by the\nwell, she exclaimed:\n\n\u201cAi, ja. What have I to live for now? My son is in the well, his father\nin banishment in Hsiang Yang, all is gone. I cannot keep my promise and\nsend him to his father. Alas! alas! My fate is indeed bitter. I too\nwill end my sorrows in the well. At least in death I can be with my\nboy. His shall also be my grave,\u201d and rising, she gathered her skirt\nabout her head preparatory to jumping in, when Ting Lang rushed out\nfrom his hiding-place and, grasping her, shouted:\n\n\u201cMother, don\u2019t. I am alive. I hid to frighten you. Why is my father in\nbanishment? What promise did you make him about me? Tell me, or I truly\nwill beat my brains out against the bricks.\u201d\n\nSeeing the desperate look in his eyes, she said, as she took him in her\narms, \u201cLittle son, you were nearly the death of your mother, but never\nmind, you shall know all. I see, indeed, you are not a child,\u201d and\nleading him into the house, she told him the sad, sad story from first\nto last, showed him the priceless keepsakes. As he looked at them and\nat the dear, patient, disfigured face, he said:\n\n\u201cMother, I am going now to seek my father. You must not prevent me.\u201d\n\nCould she let him go, out into the great unknown world, her little boy,\nher baby; how could she? And yet her promise to his father; her vow\nthat she had lived over every day of his precious little life. \u201cYes,\nthe boy should go.\u201d What mattered her sorrow at the parting? With\nbreaking heart and bitter, sad tears she gave her consent, and pawned\nalmost everything she had to give him money to use on the journey.\n\nWhen the morning came for him to leave her, she got his breakfast,\nfeeling as though the life was going out of her, and yet, with words of\nwisdom and many instructions, she clasped him to her, then allowed him\nto make his prostration, and the door closed.\n\nAs Ting Lang went down the steps he heard a fall and, going back, found\nthe dear mother like unto one dead. He called to her and wept and\nplead, and at last the dear eye once more looked into his, and he said:\n\n\u201cYou must not grieve thus. I must fulfil your promise to my father. I\nwill tell you a plan; you buy a coffin and put it under your window.\nPut all my old clothes and shoes into it, and when you are lonely and\nmiss me and must weep, you go to the coffin and say, \u2018My son is dead.\nHere will I weep for him.\u2019 Consider me as dead and here, and you will\nbe comforted.\u201d\n\nThe mother replied, \u201cYou are wise, my dear, beyond your years; I will\ndo as you say, and weep for you there.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf I live, my mother, I will come back for you if I can find my\nfather.\u201d\n\nThe boy went by boat down the Grand Canal for Tientsin. On the boat\nwere some wicked men who took his money and clothing, and when they\nreached Lui Ching, sold him to a theatre man.\n\nThis man was very unkind to him, and he was determined to make his\nescape; one day he was less carefully watched, and taking the open\nmoment, he ran to the river bank just as some men were landing from a\nboat. The boy sought their protection, told his story, and before he\nwas through, he was in the arms of one of the men, who proved to be the\nfriend, Mr. Wang, who had taken his father to the place of banishment.\n\nThe theatre man came up and declared the boy was his; upon which Mr.\nWang quarrelled with him, and in the fight that followed the man was\nkilled. Mr. Wang was arrested, but managed first to get the boy out of\nthe city and, giving him a little money, went back to stand his trial.\nAfter many long, weary days of travel, but without serious trouble, the\nhungry, footsore, and weary boy found his way to the city to which he\nhad been directed.\n\nLet us turn and follow the footsteps of the father during the twelve\nsad years. Mr. Kao was greatly depressed by his many sorrows, and when\nhe parted from his wife, he felt he should never see her again, neither\ndid he even then comprehend what a true and remarkable wife was his.\nAfter reaching the city of Hsiang Yang, to which he had been banished,\nhe was obliged to walk about with chain and ball attached to his feet,\ncarrying a gun on his shoulder. For food he was given permission to\ntake a handful of grain from each bag of tribute rice that he saw on\ncarts passing through the city. This he could cook and so keep from\nstarving. This kind of life was very trying to him and he endured it\nfor some months, and then, being a proud, spirited man, he determined\nthat he would either die or change for the better in some way. He\nbegged a few bits of money, bought a pen, ink, and some paper, and as\nhe was a very beautiful writer, he employed his time in writing Chinese\ncharacters and selling them on the street. This was a wise change, and\nas he sat writing day by day by the roadside, his fame spread all over\nthe city.\n\nOne day a very rich old gentleman, who had been observing him quietly\nfor many days, drew near and entered into conversation. After passing\nthe time of day, he remarked on the beauty of Mr. Kao\u2019s writing and his\nevident familiarity with the Chinese Classics; \u201cNeither do you look to\nme to be a man of the common people or one who should be in this prison\ndress.\u201d\n\nAs he talked his kindly manner warmed the heart of Mr. Kao, who had\ncome to feel that all the world, even the gods, were against him, and\nlittle by little he told the story of his father\u2019s life and their\ndeadly enemy, the great Yen Sung. He did not tell of his wife and the\ngreat sorrow of his family life, but said his father\u2019s enemy had been\nthe cause of his banishment for life.\n\nThe old gentleman said, \u201cMy name is Hu. I have been observing you for\ndays though you did not know it, and I was certain that you could not\nbe a guilty man. Have you any family in the north?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo,\u201d said the unhappy Kao. \u201cAll is lost to me. I am alone in the\nworld.\u201d On hearing this the gentleman said, \u201cI have a proposition to\nmake to you; I am a rich man and have large estates, but I have no son\nto inherit them or care for me when I am old. I have a beautiful\ndaughter; will you marry her, come and live with us, take my cares upon\nyou; when I am old care for me? If so, when I am gone all shall be\nyours.\u201d\n\nThe young man could hardly believe his ears, and looked in amazement,\nand at last said, \u201cHow can that be? I am a criminal, under sentence of\nthe government, a man whose very name has been changed.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is easy for me,\u201d said Mr. Hu. \u201cDid I not tell you I was rich; is\nthere anything money will not do? I can buy your freedom at the\nmagistrate\u2019s here and if you are ready and willing we will receive you\ninto our family. I ask you again only this: have you a family in the\nnorth?\u201d\n\nAgain Mr. Kao replied, \u201cNo, I am alone.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll is well then,\u201d replied Mr. Hu. \u201cI will see to the rest,\u201d and in a\nfew days what seemed as a dream to Mr. Kao, or Mr. Tu, as he took back\nhis old name, became a reality.\n\nMr. Tu was much overcome; the temptation to a life of luxury after his\nsuffering had been too great, and after his marriage to the beautiful\ndaughter of the \u201cHouse of Hu\u201d he did not dare to tell of the brave,\ntrue-hearted wife and mother in the city of Peking. He put it off from\nmonth to month, but it did not become any easier as time went by, and\nthe riches, beautiful home, and family were driving all that dark past\nmore and more from his mind. Their home was all the heart could desire,\nand later a little son came to share it with them, and then indeed were\nthe bitter days of the past cast out of heart and mind as far as\npossible.\n\nThus, in comfort and joy, the twelve years passed away; Mr. Hu thanking\nthe gods for giving him such a son, content that old age should come to\nhim and his old wife under these most auspicious circumstances. How\ndifferent a life was this from that of the wife and mother in the far\nnorth.\n\nOne day Mr. Tu went with some companions for a ride outside of the\ncity. As they neared the gate they saw a lot of people gathered about a\nyoung lad of remarkably fine face and form, but in very poor clothing.\nHe had in his hand a broken comb and, spread out before him, a part of\na silk handkerchief and a broken mirror, and with tears in his eyes Mr.\nTu waved the men aside and asked the boy who he was and where he came\nfrom.\n\nThe boy said, \u201cI am Ting Lang and am come in search of my father, Tu\nChing Ling, known by the name of Kao. He was banished to this city and\nI am in search of him. He came here twelve years ago. If any of you\nknow him or where I can find him, will you please tell me.\u201d\n\nNot a word was spoken for a moment, then Mr. Tu said, pointing to the\nkeepsakes, \u201cWhat are those things? Do you call such stuff treasure?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d said Ting Lang. \u201cMy mother gave them to me, the other half of\neach my father has and he was to know me by these.\u201d\n\nA man standing near said, \u201cThis must be your son. You have not told us\nall the truth about yourself.\u201d\n\nMr. Tu was angry then and also afraid, and striking the boy with his\nriding-whip, he said, as he threw him some silver, \u201cGet you gone, you\nare an impostor; you are not my son, but because you are a poor boy I\nwill help you a little and not put you in prison.\u201d Saying this, he rode\non, followed by his friends.\n\nAs the men rode away, the bystanders all said, \u201cThat is your father. He\nis Tu Ching Ling, also Kao Ching Chi. He was banished here twelve years\nago.\u201d\n\nWhen the boy heard this, he gathered his treasures together, and went\ninto a temple near, where he sat down to think. What had he to live\nfor? His father had disowned him; had struck him.\n\n\u201cAlas!\u201d said he. \u201cThere is for me no living road, I will end it here. I\nhave failed in my promise to my mother.\u201d\n\nTaking his girdle, he was fastening it about a beam in the temple when\nan old priest came in and said, \u201cSon, what would you do? I may be able\nto help you.\u201d\n\nThe poor lad poured out his sad story, and at its close the priest\nsaid:\n\n\u201cSon, listen to me; I will help you find your father again, and a plan\nby which he must own you. You dry your tears and stay here with me a\nfew days, and I promise you, you will yet be a happy boy.\u201d Then he\nthought a while and at last disclosed his plan in part to the lad.\n\nHe taught the boy some songs and helped him put his own life-story into\nrhyme, and one day said, \u201cI want you to sing for the \u2018foundation\nbeaters,\u2019 who are preparing the ground for a beautiful pavilion in a\nflower garden belonging to a rich man. They are in need of a leading\nvoice such as you have, and you can sing for them; you may also sing\nyour own song at that place.\u201d\n\nTing Lang went with him, and his beautiful voice and handsome face won\nthe hearts of all the workmen, and they joined in the choruses with a\nwill, throwing all their strength into the work.\n\nFor a day or two he caught no glimpse of the family, and his heart was\nsad and heavy; so also was the heart of the father, had he but known\nit. The sight of the boy had brought back the memory of his early life\nand the parting with the boy\u2019s mother. The boy was in the city; people\nwould know all and talk and it would come to his father-in-law\u2019s ears,\nyet he could not bring himself to tell him first.\n\nThe third day Ting Lang was singing he caught sight of a lady sitting\nby the window listening. She was greatly interested in this\nchild-singer as she had heard him leading the workmen, and what was her\nhorror when she saw one of her servants go up and strike the child a\nsharp blow, knocking him from the bench on which he was standing.\nSeeing the child did not get up, she called to the servant and berated\nhim soundly for his brutality.\n\n\u201cWhy did you strike him?\u201d\n\nTo which the servant answered, \u201cHe used the name of my master.\u201d\n\n\u201cFool,\u201d said the lady, \u201cyou are more than stupid. Can there not be many\nby your master\u2019s name in all these provinces? Go and bring the boy in\nhere at once and revive him, and I will pardon you this cruelty.\u201d\n\nThe servant obeyed her, and the boy was brought to the lady\u2019s room.\nAfter he revived and was quite himself again, she asked him who he was\nand how old; why he had left his mother and come to another province,\nas she could tell by his voice that he was from the north. He told her\nhe was twelve years old; had come from his home in the north to seek\nhis father, and then he went on and told her how his mother fainted\nwhen he left her, and of his own sad and lonely journey.\n\n\u201cHow old is your mother?\u201d asked the lady.\n\n\u201cShe is thirty-six,\u201d was his reply.\n\n\u201cAnd your father, how old is he?\u201d\n\n\u201cI remember hearing my mother say that he was older than she by two\nyears, and so he should be thirty-eight.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is your father\u2019s name?\u201d was her next question.\n\n\u201cTu Ching Ling,\u201d was the answer.\n\nThe room was quiet a moment, and then came the question, \u201cHow does your\nmother live?\u201d\n\nTo this Ting Lang replied, \u201cAt first we were supported by my\ngrandparents, but they are dead now; died poor, and my mother, for some\ntime, has had to take in washing. She has only one eye, so she cannot\nsee to do fine sewing. She is reduced almost to a beggar.\u201d\n\n\u201cHave you any proof of your father?\u201d was the next question.\n\n\u201cYes, I have the three mementos. The half of each are in my father\u2019s\npossession. These I have are the half my mother kept, and I was to\npresent them when I found my father.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen she gave you these, did she tell you when she gave the other half\nto your father?\u201d\n\nTing Lang said, \u201cYes.\u201d Then he told of their parting as he had learned\nit from the lips of his mother. Then he went on and told how he came to\nstart out in search of his father, the long, lonely road; how and why\nhis father was banished. It was with many sobs and tears that the story\nwas told, and before he was through the lady was weeping with him. As\nhe closed she put her arm around him and said:\n\n\u201cI am your second mother.\u201d\n\nWhen the boy heard this he was frightened and said, \u201cAlas! alas! what\nhave I done!\u201d\n\n\u201cNothing,\u201d was the reply; \u201crest your heart, you are indeed my son, for\nI also am your father\u2019s wife.\u201d Then she told him the story of his\nfather\u2019s coming to the city, her father\u2019s interest in him, and her\nmarriage. \u201cHe said he had no family when we asked him and I could not\nknow of your mother. You have a younger brother, my little son, who is\nnine years old. His name is Kan Lang; that corresponds with the name\nyour father left you, and I believe all your story. The mistake is all\nyour father\u2019s. You are indeed his son.\u201d\n\nTing Lang knelt and knocked his head to his second mother.\n\nAs she raised him up she said, \u201cYou have indeed suffered; you are the\nbest and bravest boy I ever heard of; you shall never leave us.\u201d\n\nThis mother, Hu Y\u00fcch Ying, was also a very beautiful character, and her\nsweet, gentle manners won the heart of Ting Lang and he believed her\nword. She sent a servant to call her own little son, Kan Lang, and when\nhe came he asked, \u201cDid you call me, mother?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is your older brother. Greet him first.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut, mother, I never saw or heard of him before,\u201d was the reply of Kan\nLang.\n\n\u201cGreet him as I tell you, and afterward I will explain matters to you.\u201d\nThe boys then bent the knee to each other and then the mother told her\nson that she was a second wife; that the first wife was the mother of\nTing Lang, and she was also his mother; that Ting Lang was also her\nson, and they were to care tenderly for each other. Then she sent a\nservant to find his master and invite him to come to her apartments.\n\nWhen he came in she asked, \u201cDo you know this lad?\u201d Her husband replied,\n\u201cI saw him outside the gate of the city. Who is he and what does he\nwant here?\u201d Then his wife said:\n\n\u201cYou are an ungrateful man. You deserve the severest punishment Heaven\ncan give. When I asked you if I had an \u2018older sister\u2019 you said no! My\nfather and mother treated you as a piece of fine gold. You had nothing\nwhen you came to them. You should have told them the truth, and after\nmarriage told me the truth. You dress in silk, satin, and broadcloth;\nyou eat the best of the land, live in a great house, read, write, and\nhave tens of servants to wait at your door. You go out; it is either on\nhorse, in chair, or by cart, and ever with your outriders. You left my\npoor sister in sorrow and poverty for twelve long years, while you have\nlived in luxury and pleasures. Twelve years for her of bitterness and\ndeath, forgotten by the man she trusted and for whom she gave her\nbeauty of person. You with your four seasons\u2019 clothing, she almost a\nbeggar. Look at this your son, and think of his twelve years; ah! they\nhave made him a stronger man, though a boy yet, than his father. Think\nof the long, weary way he has come seeking you; ah! the heart of an\niron or a stone man must have cried out at such sorrow as has been\ntheirs. How can you call yourself a man? How can you see my parents?\nAbove all, how will you ever be able to look in the face of my sister,\nthe mother of Ting Lang?\u201d Then turning to the latter she said:\n\n\u201cSon, your father is not worthy, but kneel to him and make your\ngreeting and give him your mother\u2019s message.\u201d\n\nTing Lang knelt at his father\u2019s feet, and when the father saw him there\nhe felt as though a knife had entered his heart. He put out his hand\nand said:\n\n\u201cMy virtuous and filial son, son of my suffering wife,\u201d and then fell\nback in a swoon.\n\nThe boys and the mother sprang forward and caught him and placed him in\na chair, a son standing at either side of the chair, the sweet mother\nat the back.\n\nAs he came to and opened his eyes and saw them thus, he took his wife\u2019s\nhand and said:\n\n\u201cI have sinned against you and your house. I was afraid to tell you all\nthe truth. Ah, you are a better woman than I am a man. You are a great\ndaughter of a great house.\u201d\n\nThen Hu Y\u00fcch Ying said, \u201cIf indeed you will listen to me, I will\nforgive you.\u201d\n\nHe replied, \u201cWhatever you say I will do.\u201d\n\nMeantime the old father and mother, having heard the crying and loud\nvoices, came to the door. It was opened and they came in, saying, \u201cFor\nthe first time we have heard what sounded like a quarrel, and have come\nto see what it is about.\u201d\n\nTheir son-in-law came and, kneeling at his father\u2019s feet, said,\n\u201cHonoured and great father, I have sinned!\u201d Then came the daughter and,\nkneeling before her mother, she said, \u201cHis sins are my sins,\u201d and after\nthat the two boys, who said as they knelt, \u201cOur parents\u2019 sins are\nours,\u201d and the four wept with loud and bitter tears. The old man said:\n\n\u201cArise, my children, all of you,\u201d and lifted up his son-in-law; the\nmother took her daughter in her arms, and two servants came forward and\nlifted up the boys.\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d said old Mr. Hu, \u201ctell me all the trouble.\u201d Then said Tu Ching\nLing:\n\n\u201cI have lied to you.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat about, my son?\u201d asked Mr. Hu. \u201cWhat could you possibly do that I\ncould not forgive?\u201d Tu Ching Ling told of his wife, how he had lied\nabout her, of her virtue, and all the sad, miserable story, including\nhis fear to own his son, and sending him off. He concluded with:\n\n\u201cI am not worthy to be your son. Your goodness is as high as Heaven and\nas deep as the earth.\u201d As he closed the old gentleman looked at Ting\nLang and said:\n\n\u201cThank the gods, thank the gods, that from your house has come forth\nsuch a son. My house is honoured in him. You are forgiven.\u201d\n\nThen the father called Ting Lang to prostrate himself before his\ngrandparents, which he did, knocking his head to each three times. As\nold Mr. Hu looked at him his eyes filled and he said, \u201cHe has the\nvirtues of Heaven and the strength of the gods; this is a son for the\ngods, and the glory of his father, grandfather, and most worthy mother;\nbe comforted, son-in-law, we cannot divide the house; the child to seek\nhis father was ready to die, and to our house has come glory, and\nbecause of the virtues of this boy the broken household shall be\nreunited. To-day is a great day in our family. To honour this event,\nfor three days the workmen shall feast on meat and flour, and we will\nhave a great house-feast for three days, that all the friends and\nrelatives may know of our joy. We will call the best teacher in the\nland and the boys shall study together;\u201d then again he put his hand on\nTing Lang\u2019s shoulder and said:\n\n\u201cYou need not mourn for your mother. I will send for her. She shall\ncome in state and live in luxury all the rest of her life.\u201d\n\nThus were husband, wife, and children all comforted, and made ready for\nthe great feast and theatre in honour of the oldest son. After which\nthe oldest family servants were sent north to Peking with letters for\nthe mother of Ting Lang.\n\nHu Y\u00fcch Ying wrote a beautiful letter of invitation to her, telling of\nthe home that awaited her, of herself, the little sister who would care\nfor her, of two sons instead of one, who longed for her instruction and\nhelp. She wrote of the comforts she could have and the welcome that\nawaited her.\n\nWhen the servants reached Peking they had a hard time to find the small\ncourt where she had her little room. They asked for \u201cLady Y\u00fc,\u201d which\nmuch surprised her neighbours. They said:\n\n\u201cThe only one in that court by that name is an old woman who is almost\na beggar; she has a small son, but he is off seeking his father.\u201d\n\n\u201cPlease call her,\u201d said the head steward, and the neighbours went and\nsaid, \u201cMrs. Y\u00fc, some men at the gate are seeking you. They seem to\nbelong to some big man, but their dialect is not of this province.\u201d\n\nY\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying said, \u201cTell them my room is small, I have no man at home,\nand it is not, therefore, proper for them to enter my place. Whatever\nbusiness they have they are to tell you.\u201d\n\nAs they returned to the gate the neighbours said, \u201cAlthough she is so\npoor, she is most particular as to observing good customs.\u201d\n\nThen the servants sent in the two letters. She read the one from her\nhusband, asking her pardon for his neglect, saying he had no means of\nexpressing his deep regret, telling of his present circumstances and\ncomforts, and thanking her for sending the son. He said he had no words\nto praise her virtue, it was as high as Heaven; told of the son\u2019s\nfinding him and how he was studying under a great teacher who\npronounced him a remarkable scholar. Then he urged her \u201cten thousand\ntimes to come and live with them. The servants had come to bring her,\nand he and her sister would only be happy when she came. They hoped for\nher day and night, and their hearts were hungry for her friendship,\neven as her two sons needed her instruction.\u201d\n\nAs she closed the letter she said, \u201cThanks to the gods who took my\nchild in safety. My husband has then a wife and son. My own son is\nprovided for; my heart is at rest.\u201d She then wrote the following\nletter:\n\n\u201cMy little sister and virtuous husband: your letters of invitation are\nat hand. I cannot thank you enough for your goodness to my boy. I do\nnot desire comforts and luxuries for myself. I only desire his best\ngood. That has come. I have suffered only that the boy and his father\nmight be united. You need not be anxious about me. I am entirely\nsatisfied. The Superior Man may be poor in bodily comforts, but he is\nnot poor in wisdom or virtue. The tiger may be very thin, but the\nstrength of his heart is not diminished.\u201d Then she called the servants,\nwho came and gave her a greeting. They said they had everything ready\nto take her back with them. Also two women-servants were waiting in the\ncart for her. Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying said:\n\n\u201cI am poor, I have nothing to give you for all your long, weary\njourney. Please return and take this letter; I will not go with you\nnow.\u201d The servants all urged her and plead with her; showed her the\nboxes of garments, the silver sent for the journey; praised the\nbeautiful home waiting for her, told of the kind old people, and most\ncharming younger sister. To all she turned a deaf ear.\n\n\u201cMy son has found his father; the latter has comforts and riches; I\nwill abide here; here where I have suffered will I live my life; I care\nnot for riches; although I am poor I am not covetous. Our great sage\nsaid, The Superior Man may be poor, but he will never be covetous.\nAlthough I am poor you must not try to make me ashamed, and you need\nnot praise their riches; I may not always be poor and they may not\nalways be rich. The gods deal out to men their lives, I am content. In\nthe spring the grass sends up its shoots; autumn comes and the leaves\nfall. In the autumn of life we will compare our fates.\u201d\n\nAs she said this the tears came; all the years of loneliness and\nsadness swept over her; she could not accept comforts from him who had\nbeen untrue to her, or from the one who had her place. The servants\nsaid:\n\n\u201cLady Y\u00fc, you are indeed a Superior Woman. If we go back without you,\nyou must at least keep the garments and the money.\u201d\n\nThese she at first refused, but at last, to satisfy them, as she knew\nthat the servants would suffer if she did not, she said:\n\n\u201cI do not want the silks and velvets; take those back with you. How\nwould I, a beggar, look in such garments. Give me a few changes of\ncotton garments; they will fit my station better and I will not appear\nto be other than I am.\u201d\n\nThis was done after much protesting; then she accepted a few ounces of\nsilver, and told them they might use the rest on the journey back. They\nsaid:\n\n\u201cWe have a plenty for all; we will put this in the care of a big store\nhere; our master is part owner in it, and you must go to him for it\nwhen you need it. You must promise us this for the sake of your son.\nYou must not cause him to weep, and be sad, because of your living in\nuseless poverty.\u201d She promised them she would go when she had need of\nmoney and get from the store for her use, and with great reluctance the\nservants, again prostrating themselves, left her; they returned to the\nsouth and she entered her poor little room.\n\nYears came and went; to all the letters Lady Y\u00fc returned an answer that\nshe was in need of nothing and would not leave her native city. The\nboys grew up together. They were very bright, and year by year took\nhigh honours in the examinations. In all the province there was no\nother student equal to Ting Lang. He was the talk of the city; and\npeople predicted a great fortune for him.\n\nWhen he was seventeen, he and his brother went to Peking to take the\nexaminations for the higher degrees; for these they not only wrote the\nthree-page essay, but also a two-page \u201cChin Tsin,\u201d or a short account\nof the family, going back several generations and giving the official\npositions of any of their ancestors.\n\nWhen Ting Lang entered his name and his brother\u2019s for the examinations\nthey had given the name of Hu and as he had not sought out his mother,\nno one knew that the much-talked-of young student was of the old house\nof Tu. His enemy, Yen Sung, had no thought of fear from the family. He\nwas the great examiner, the head of the Hau Lin College. In all the\nEmpire no one could write such characters as he. (At the present time,\ncharacters written by him hang in the Hall of Classics in Peking as a\nmodel of perfect writing.) Year by year his power had grown until the\nEmperor was almost a figurehead and hated him, yet no one dared to\nimpeach him.\n\nTing Lang came with three hundred and fifty-nine other men who had the\ndegree of \u201cChin Shib,\u201d to be examined for \u201cChuang Yuan,\u201d the highest\ndegree in the Empire, and a degree only given to one man once in three\nyears. This year it came to Ting Lang and the degree of \u201cPang Yen\u201d to\nhis brother. Ting Lang\u2019s writing was pronounced perfect by the Emperor,\nthe style most elegant.\n\nAt the close of the examinations a great feast was given; among those\npresent was a powerful official by name of Hai Jui. He was noted as a\nman of great ability and as an honest and upright minister. He knew the\nstory of Ting Lang\u2019s life; felt that the time had come to expose the\ngreat Yen Sung, so at the great feast following the examinations he\nwrote the following on slips of paper and sent them quietly among the\nstudents:\n\n\u201cA great man has come among us in our new \u2018Chuang Yuan.\u2019 Although a boy\nin years, he is a man, yes a son of a god in ability and talent. He\nwill be of great use to his country. There are officials\u2014yes, great\nones\u2014who are traitors to the good of their country; these we must put\ndown and give men of ability a chance.\u201d\n\nEvery one knew this referred to Yen Sung though no name was given.\nAfter the feast the students all waited outside the Hall for Yen Sung\nto come for audience with the Emperor. As he came near to his chair,\nTing Lang walked up to him and said:\n\n\u201cYou great traitor to your country; you crafty minister; you control\nand insult the Emperor, hold under as slaves all officials of the\nEmpire; you oppressor of the people, your sun is set. Your sons are\nlike you in wickedness; your steward is a devil, and you plan with him.\nYour great literary name is wild and worthless; judgment awaits you,\nthe judgment of Heaven.\u201d\n\nThe great Yen Sung looked around; not a friendly face; his own grew a\nlittle fearful, and yet in a loud voice he called out:\n\n\u201cWhat does this mean?\u201d and turning to the officials he had created he\nsaid, \u201cYou stand there and see me reviled; you make no motion to help\nme; life and death are in my hands and you will suffer.\u201d With that he\nattempted to get into his chair, when Ting Lang and all his student\nfriends set upon him. They tore off his audience cap, his royal robes,\nbeat him, reviled him, and were in the midst of a free fight with him\nand his chair-bearers, when Hai Jui came from the audience hall. In a\nfew words quiet was restored, and the great Yen Sung, torn and\ntattered, beaten, and raging like a lion, rushed into the audience hall\nand, bending before the Emperor, cried out for revenge. The Emperor had\nheard the commotion outside and had asked who and what it was. They had\ntold him that the three hundred and sixty literary men who had been at\nthe feast had set upon and were beating Yen K\u00eb Lao. When the Emperor\nheard this he said:\n\n\u201cFor literary men, men of high degree, to do such a thing means, can\nbut mean, that they have a good clear reason, otherwise they would not\nact like beasts,\u201d so he waited, and was waiting when Yen Sung rushed\nin.\n\n\u201cGreat Emperor,\u201d said he, \u201cI have been beaten by the students, and\nwithout cause. There is going to be a rebellion, have a care, your\nMajesty.\u201d When he was through the Emperor said:\n\n\u201cHow could so many people attack one man unless there was a good\nreason? We will examine into this thing. Call the new \u2018Chuang Yuan,\u2019 I\nwill ask him.\u201d Ting Lang came and knocked his head and said:\n\n\u201cMy lord, live ten thousand years; I have sinned, I have beaten a \u2018K\u00eb\nLao.\u2019 I ought to die.\u201d The Emperor said:\n\n\u201cYou are a new and very young Chuang Yuan. How can you have a death\nsin?\u201d Then, turning to another official he said, \u201cCall Hai Jui, I will\nhave his witness.\u201d Hai Jui knelt and said:\n\n\u201cI dare not look on thy face, great Lord; for a Chuang Yuan to beat a\nK\u00eb Lao, there must always be a reason.\u201d The Emperor replied:\n\n\u201cThat is right and fair; to attack just outside of my door, there must\nbe a clear reason and a great one,\u201d then he turned and commanded Ting\nLang to tell at once. Ting Lang said:\n\n\u201cMost mighty one, one word would not explain; I have it all in a\ndocument which I have here and would beg your Majesty to read. It will\nexplain all.\u201d He held out his document and, at a bow from the Emperor,\na eunuch came forward, took it, and placed it on the table by the\nEmperor\u2019s side. The latter took it up and read it: the sad story of the\nthree generations. He read as in a dream the entire paper; he saw, as\none thing after another came before his mind, how for years he had been\na tool of his minister, Yen Sung. Saw how he had kept back and brought\nto death many a good, worthy official. At last, lifting his head, he\nlooked at the trembling Yen Sung and said:\n\n\u201cAi, ya! This is true, all of it. I know it; you are the greatest\ntraitor under the heavens. I give to Hai Jui power to strip you of all\nrank, and hand you over to the Board of Punishments. You shall be tried\nand punished for your evil deeds.\u201d Then, turning to Hai Jui, he\ncommanded him to call soldiers, to then and there take him to prison;\nto see that a day was appointed for trial. Then he commanded that a\npalace be found and put in order for the new Chuang Yuan and his\nbrother; that in the third day all officials were to call on him and\nmake his acquaintance.\n\nWith great luxury was the palace prepared, for all rejoiced at the\ndownfall of the great Yen Sung, and all desired to do homage to the\ngreat son of the old official house of Tu.\n\nDuring these days in the city, Ting Lang had not dared to seek out his\nmother, as he wanted first to expose their enemy; he came to the city\nunder the name of Hu, and while Lady Y\u00fc had heard of the very wonderful\nyoung man, she did not dare to even hope that it might be her son; she\nasked no questions and no one mentioned the downfall of Yen Sung. The\nnext day a steward came and told her he suspected the young man was her\nson; but she said:\n\n\u201cNo, that cannot be; no such glory awaits our house. I have heard a\nlittle of the two brothers, but you have made a mistake.\u201d The day after\nthe downfall she was busy at home when a neighbour came in and said:\n\n\u201cSome great men have just entered our street and are coming this way.\u201d\nJust then a servant rushed in and said:\n\n\u201cThey have come to get the Great Lady.\u201d\n\nThe neighbours laughed and said, \u201cWhat great lady? There is no great\nlady in this street.\u201d\n\nBut the horsemen drew near the gate and awaited the chairs. The servant\ncame and said:\n\n\u201cThe great man, the new Chuang Yuan, has come for his honoured mother,\nthe Lady Y\u00fc.\u201d Then came the other servants one after another. Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch\nYing put up her hand and protested:\n\n\u201cI am but a poor lone woman, living my life quietly. You have made a\nmistake, there is no great Lady Y\u00fc here.\u201d Then in came Ting Lang,\nfollowed by his brother. In beautiful robes and special official cap,\nthat told of his high rank, with all the glory of his position, she\nknew him; knew her boy who left her a little lad, returning to her with\nglory honestly won. As the sages truly say, \u201cThe son, though he goes\nthousands of miles from home, never leaves his mother\u2019s heart; the son,\nthough separated from his mother years, never forgets her, but carries\nher in his heart.\u201d He now sprang forward and knelt before her, saying:\n\n\u201cHonoured mother, don\u2019t come a step, I am unworthy.\u201d To test his heart\nshe said:\n\n\u201cAnd who are you that call me mother?\u201d\n\n\u201cOnly your own small son, Ting Lang, my mother.\u201d\n\nKan Lang came and knelt beside him and said, \u201cGreat mother, I do you\nreverence. I also am your son.\u201d Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying came to put both hands on\nher son\u2019s shoulders and said:\n\n\u201cAh, son! son! I have longed for you to the death; did you not think,\nwhile you were away, of my sadness and loneliness?\u201d Thus she put out\nher hand and took the hand of the younger boy, and together they wept.\n\n\u201cMy mother, if you weep to your illness, of what joy is my promotion?\nWord has already gone to the southern home, and they will come to us.\nOur sorrows, yours are over; I shall never leave you or you me. The\nbitterness is over and the sweet has come, be comforted and we will all\nrejoice together.\u201d Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying lifted her hands and said:\n\n\u201cI thank Heaven and the gods that the mother and son are united again.\nI thank Heaven that I also have a younger son. I thank Heaven and Earth\nfor giving such an honour to poor sightless me.\u201d\n\nThe sons lifted her from her knees, called the servants who took her to\nher room, and after arranging her still beautiful black hair, they\nrobed her in garments of honour brought by her son. When all was ready\nthe sons came and, bending the knee, said:\n\n\u201cWe invite our mother to take her chair, leaving this little court and\nroom, and go with us to enjoy the pleasures and blessings granted by\nHeaven to the restored House of Tu.\u201d The mother said:\n\n\u201cMy sons, these poor neighbours have been kind to me always. Thank them\nfor me.\u201d This the sons did in a most respectful manner and promised to\nreward them. She herself then thanked them, and they escorted her to\nher chair, and to the palace where she was given great honour.\n\nLater in the day, father, mother, and grandparents of Kan Lang came,\nand thus, after eighteen weary years, the family was reunited, and joy\ncame in every form to them for many long years. Y\u00fc Y\u00fcch Ying lived to\nsee and hold her great grandchildren, and to see great glory come to\ntheir house. Their great enemy was tried and punished by loss of all\nrank and estate; his last days spent in poverty and seclusion.\nTradition says he was given a silver bowl and made to beg from door to\ndoor for the rest of his life, and a small street called \u201cSilver\nStreet\u201d is said to have been named for his bowl and the fact that there\nhe died on the street a beggar. History only records the loss of rank\nand estate. His steward, Nien Chi, was tried at the same time, and was\nsentenced to be burned alive in the street,\u2014\u201cA fine lamp for one dark\nnight.\u201d Thus was meted out punishment to the enemies of the House of\nTu.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\n1. The song of \u201cTing Lang Seeking his Father\u201d is never sung by the\n\u201cfoundation beaters\u201d of China except they are given a special gift of\nmoney or a meal of white bread. There is no other song among the many\nthey sing that produces the effect that this one does; man by man they\nseem to live over the little lad\u2019s life. A leader sings the main part,\nthey coming in in special parts as it is arranged. When one of the\nBritish Legation buildings in Peking was being built, they paid five\ndollars to have the song sung, and it is always the special for all\nlarge Chinese buildings.\n\n\n2. The place where the wicked Nien Chi lived is the site of the\nAmerican Board Mission in Peking and was bought by them over forty\nyears ago. It adjoins the grounds of the great and more wicked Yen\nSung. This is now the home of a Mongol Prince. The palace has had for\nhundreds of years an unsavoury reputation. It was the underlings,\nservants, and Boxers, supported by the present owner, who was also a\nBoxer leader, who destroyed the Congregational Mission in 1900. It was\nthe place where the Mission made its headquarters until the rebuilding\nof the Board property. It was here many Christians were taken, tried,\nand sentenced to death. So the present record is similar to that of the\ndays of Yen Sung.","title":"Gleanings from Chinese folklore","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":35207}