¹ “The Goddess”^a connotes both the Goddess Mountain and the mythological goddess of the mountains of Wushan^b in the Yangtze Gorges.

² Prof. L. Carrington Goodrich's version of man-fu ching-lun^c in “Recent Developments in Chinese Studies,” JAOS, 85:2 (04–06 1965), 117–21Google Scholar. According to Tsang K'o-chia, “Mao Tsetung has steeped himself in Chinese literature. He has read a great many classical works and absorbed much that is beautiful from them” (Mao Tse-tung, Nineteen Poems, tr. Andrew Boyd [Peking, 1958], p. 45).Google Scholar

³ Tsang K'o-chia's Preface, ibid., p. 5. “In spite of his extreme position in the rejection of old China,” Lu Hsün (like Mao) “could at times submit himself completely to old Chinese poetry, with all its obscurity and weight of tradition. He could adapt himself to the culture of the traditional elite and derive whatever comfort it might still afford in an age of violent social changes and political revolution” (Hsia, T. A., The Gate of Darkness [Seattle, 1968], p. 149).Google Scholar

⁴ For a discussion of tz'u, see Tay, C. N., “From Snow to Plum Blossoms,” JAS, XXV/2 (02 1966), 287–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ Mao Tse-tung on Art and Literature (Peking, 1960), pp. 88 and 96.Google Scholar

⁶ “A Letter on the Writing of Poetry” dated Jan. 12, 1957, Nineteen Poems, p. 7Google Scholar. “Most high school students of today,” wrote Chu Tzu-ch'ing in May 1931, “are unable to distinguish the four classical tones, and have no concept of ‘rhyme.’ Thus they cannot fully appreciate the flavor of poetry. The four tones are p'ing, shang, ch'ü, and ju ^e, the pitch accents of Chinese words, which can best be learned during childhood. Once the child has grown up, they are much more difficult to learn” (reprinted in Kuo-wen chiao-hsüeh [The Teaching of Chinese] [Hong Kong, 1963 reprint ed.], p. 88). In modern northern Mandarin, the abrupt ju tone is not extant.

⁷ From the creditable translation by Andrew Boyd in Nineteen Poems, p. 9Google Scholar. Ch'in (or Shen)- yüan-ch'un [Ch'in Garden Spring”], the name of the melody, has no direct bearing on the topic of the lyric, but only indicates the lyrical pattern originally written to the melody—with exemplary rhyme and tone sequence and metrical structure—on which the present composition is based.

⁸ See Hawkes, David, Ch'u Tz'u: the Songs of the South (Beacon Press ed.), p. 92Google Scholar, “The Nine Arguments.”^g

⁹ Ou-yang Hsiu (1007–1072), “Rhymeprose on the Sounds of Autumn,”^h according to Herbert A. Giles' rhetorical version entided “An Autumn Dirge” in Gems of Chinese Literature: Prose (Rev. 1922 ed.), pp. 164–65.Google Scholar

¹⁰ “The Sounds of Autumn,” Chien-nan shih-chi [Collected Poems] 5:7a, in Lu Fang-weng ch'üanchi (Ssu-pu pei-yao ed.).

¹¹ “On Hearing the First Breeze of Autumn,”ⁱLiu Meng-te wen-chi (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed.), 4:13b–14a.

¹² Prof. T. A. Hsia's usage in A Terminological Study of the Hsia-fang Movement (Berkeley, 1963), p. 15Google Scholar. “Prosperity,” wrote Francis Bacon, “is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes” (“Of Adversity”). And Lü Tsu-ch'ien (1137–1182) observed: “Arms do not necessarily vanquish an enemy, but luxuries often suffice to bring a country to ruin” (Tung-lai po-i [Discourses of Lü Tung-lai], ch. 4, “Tou Chiao of Ch'u”). Thus Kung-fu Wen-po's mother (ca. 500 B.C.) admonished her minister son when the latter came home from court to see her spinning and took it amiss: “The ancient sage-kings administered their people by settling them on marginal land and keeping them diligently employed, and their rule lasted for a long time” (Kuo-yü [Conversations of the States], ch. 5, “Lu yü,” hsia [Ts'ung-shu chich'eng ed.], 70).

¹³ Mao's early “reading of Darwin, Rousseau, J. S. Mill, and F. Paulsen,” noted Jerome Ch'en, “broadened his vision and encouraged him to break away from obsolete tradition” (Mao and the Chinese Revolution [London, 1965], p. 6).Google Scholar

¹⁴ See Mao chu-hsi shih-tz'u [Chairman Mao's Poems] (Peking, 1963).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Cf. Tagore, Amitendranath, Literary Debates in Modern China: 1918–1937 (Tokyo, 1967), p. 14Google Scholar. “The cultural revolution [of 1919],” wrote Prof. Ch'ien Mu in 1940, “advocated all-out Westernization” and “the overthrow of China's own past traditional culture and historical teaching” (Kuo-shih ta-kang [Outline of Chinese History], Taipei reprint of first 1940 ed., p. 658).Google Scholar

¹⁶ See I-cheng, Liu, Chung-kuo wen-hua-shih [History of Chinese Civilization] (Taipei reprint of first 1948 ed.), III, 281Google Scholar. “In 1922,” noted Prof. Hawkes, David, “the Chinese Ministry of Education substituted vernacular for classical textbooks in the schools”Google Scholar (“Literature: An Introductory Note,” in The Legacy of China, ed. Dawson, Raymond [Oxford, 1964], p. 80Google Scholar). By Feb. 1926, educatoreditor T'ao Meng-ho^j was desperately pleading that “thread-bound [traditional Chinese] books should not be lightly discarded at least in the immediate future,” even though “some people are at present trying hard to eliminate literary Chinese completely from secondary and elementary schools” (Preface to Kuo-wen ku-shih hsüan-tu [Selected Readings of Stories in Literary Chinese] [8m ed., Shanghai, 1935], pp. i and ii).

¹⁷ Shui chu ch'en fou (line 13),^f literally, “Who decides the fall and rise?” (cf. Mr. Boyd's free translation, “Who are the masters of all nature?”) Fou ch'en or “rise and fall” stands for “the ins and the outs” as indicated by Ts'ao Chih's (192–232) line, Fou-ch'en ko i-shih ^h [“Rise and fall are different in situations”], alluding to his brother on the throne and himself sent away from court. See Chieh, Huang, Ts'ao Tzu-chien shih chu [Annotated Poetry of Ts'ao Chih] (Peking, 1957), 1:3Google Scholar, “Seven Laments”^l).

¹⁸ Lung-ch'üan wen-chi [Collected Works of Ch'en Liang], ch. 30 (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts'ung-shu ed.), 371. According to his biographer, Mao was fond of Ch'en Liang's writings as a young student, conversant with Han Yü's (768–824) Collected Worlds, and earnest in his profitable study of Ssu-ma Kuang's (1019–1086) historical masterpiece, Tzuchih t'ung-chien [General Mirror for the Aid of Government], etc. See Jui, Li, Mao Tse-tung t'ung chih te ch'u-ch'i ko-ming huo-tung [The Early Revolutionary Activities of Comrade Mao Tse-tung] (Peking, 1957), pp. 26–27.Google Scholar

¹⁹ In 1917 when Mao headed the student organization of the First Normal School, its swimming section had more than eighty members, who used to come together to swim in the Hsiang river after class (ibid., p. 34).

²⁰ Cheng-jung sui-yüeh ch'ou (line 15),^f literally, “High [and] noble years [and] months galore.” Cheng-jung denotes the “majestic loftiness” of a mountain, hence “high and noble,” “rigorous [season],” etc. “The Chinese language, especially the language of Chinese poetry, is extremely compact,” remarked Prof. Wen I-to. The poet “simply lays out the words, one by one, without resorting to the rules of grammar, like the modern impressionist artist putting the colors, spot by spot, on the canvas, and letting them harmonize themselves and bring out one another. This makes Chinese poetry all the more untranslatable, not to say into English, but into spoken Chinese as well” (“On the English Translation of Li Po's Poems,” T'ang-shih tsa-lun [Essays on Tang Poetry], Wen I-to ch'üan-chi [Collected Works] [1948]Google Scholar, p. ping 162).

²¹ Ch'ia t'ung-hsüeh shao-nien (line 16)^f [“Just when we were young school friends”]. Cf. Tu Fu's usage in “Autumn Feelings:”^mT'ung-hsüeh shaonien to pu-chien ⁿ [“My young school friends are mostly not humble”] (Ch'iu Chao-ao [fl. 1693], Tu Shao-ling chi hsiang-chu [Annotated Works of Tu Fu], ch. 17 (Wan-yu wen-k'u ed.), ts'e 7, 65, 3rd of 8 verses.

²² Feng-hua in line 17 stands for feng-yün and ts'ai-hua,^o “graceful in manners and gifted with talents,” which is incompatible with proud bearing and unrelated to physical strength according to Mr. Boyd. See Tz'u-yüan, p. 1634bGoogle Scholar; cf. “the suave manner of the well-bred Chinese” (Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms, s.v. “Suave”).

²³ Fen-t'u,^p “dirt” or “filth,” is more repugnant and provoking than “dust,” which has also melancholic connotations alien to Mao's “revolutionary romanticism.” Cf. Han Yü's (q.v. n. 18) outcry in “Snow, Written for Chang Chi:”^q “The [upright] pines and bamboos are thwarted,/While the dirt is glutted with care and nourishment” (Han Ch'ang-li chi, ch. 9 [WYWK ed.], ts'e 3, 31).Google Scholar

²⁴ Lang o fei-chou (line 25),^f “Waves impeded speeding boats,” is comparable in imagery and syntax to Hsiang o hsing-yün,^r “Sounds [of good singing] impeded travelling clouds,” in Lieh-tzu, ch. 5 (Peking, 1956), p. 15.Google Scholar

²⁵ Glimpses of Bengal, Selected from the Letters of Sir Rabindranath Tagore 1885–1895 (London, 1921), pp. 58–59.Google Scholar

²⁶ Op. cit., ch. 12, ts'e 3, 88. “Few are willing,” said Robert F. Kennedy, “to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence” (Newsweek, 06 17, 1968, p. 3).Google Scholar

²⁷ “Farewell, Leighton Stuart!” dated Aug. 18, 1949, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Peking, 1961), IV, 437Google Scholar. Po-i, the note explained, “fled to the Shouyang Mountain and starved to death rather than eat of Chou grain” after the Chou king's victory.

²⁸ Mao Tsc-tung on Art and Literature, op. cit., p. 40Google Scholar. “Study the past. What is past is prologue,” said the inscriptions at the entrance to the National Archives in Washington. As Sun Ch'üan (182–252), the Wu king, told his general Lü Meng (178–219), “You must not think that I want you to study the classics to become a professor. All I ask you is to read widely and acquaint yourself with past events” (San-kuo chih [History of the Three Kingdoms] [Po-na ed.], “Wu shu,” 9:17b). And the poet Tu Mu (803–852) exhorted his nephew: “The classical canons clean our character;/The historical works reveal the rise and fall [of men and empires]” (“Written for My Little Nephew Ah Hsüan on the Day of Winter Solstice,”^tFan-ch'üan wen-chi [SPTK ed.], 1:11a). But “in the years 1915–20,” recalled Prof. J. G. Andersson listening to the discussions of the young Peking intelligentsia, “the classical canons, venerated since times immemorial, were thrown to the four winds” (BMFEA [Stockholm], No. 8 [1936], 7). And in the winter of 1921, the “Museum of History” sold 7,000 jute bags containing 150,000 catties (about 100 tons) of the former imperial archives in its custody to a waste paper merchant for 4,000 silver dollars to pay the salaries of its staff (Wang Kuo-wei's Preface to Lo Chen-yü, Shih-liao ts'ung-k'an ch'u-pien [Collected Historical Materials, First Series] [Taipei, 1964, facs. reprod. of first 1924 ed.]).

²⁹ “To Liu Ching-wen,”^uSu Tung-p'o chi, ch. 18 (WYWK ed.),ts'e 4, 96.

³⁰ “Is it better,” asked Ch'ü Yüan in the satirical Pu chü ^v [“Divining for a Course to Follow”] attributed to him, “to preserve one's integrity by means of a lofty detachment,/Or to wait on a king's mistress with flattery, fawning, and strained, smirking laughter?” (Hawkes, , Ch'u Tz'u, p. 89).Google Scholar

³¹ In a recent survey, Prof. Wolfram Eberhard characterized the Hunanese as being “emotional, heroic, military, upright,” and “eating very hot food” (“Chinese Regional Stereotypes,” Asian Survey, 5:12 [12 1965], 599Google Scholar). Cf. Liu Yü-hsi's observation: “Along the Hsiao and Hsiang there is no mud hill or turbid water, and the people influenced by the environment are often pure, intelligent, and refined” (Prefatory note to “Parting with Ven. Haoch'u at Lake Hai-yang,”^wop. cit., 7:8b). And Mao's favorite food, according to his former bodyguard and sometime cook, included “beef, chilli, fried bean curd” (Ch'en Ch'ang-feng, On the Long March with Chairman Mao [Peking, 1959], p. 35Google Scholar). In a world where money is God, the Hunanese lass hawking rock-candy-sugarcd lotus-seed soup through passing train windows at the Yüeh-yang railroad station on the 680-mile Canton-Hankow line would dispense with a smile and save her customer's embarrassment by saying “Think nothing of it, sir, just bring it some other time,” when the train started moving before he could return the empty bowl and pay her; and the slow-paced, gentry-robed, mulish ricksha man in Changsha would ask his patron to “Please come down and pull it yourself” when urged to go faster.

³² Cf. Li Hsün's (fl. 896) Yü-ko-tzu ^x [“Fisher's lyric”]: “The beautiful scenery of Orange Island is like a screen painting” (Hua-chien chi,^y an early anthology of tz'u lyrics, ed. Chao Ch'ung-tso [fl. 940] [Peking, 1955, facs. reprod. of 1148 woodblock print ed.], 10:6a).

³³ Cf. Tu Fu: “Between Ch'iao-k'ou and Orange Island the currents are swift” (“Reply to Magistrate Kuo [Shou],”^aop. cit., ch. 22, ts'e 9, 37).Google Scholar

³⁴ The Yüeh-lu^aa or “foothills (lu) of the Heng-yüeh [mountains]” rise only 293 meters above sea level (cf. Tsui-hsin Chung-kuo fen-sheng ti-t'u [Latest Provincial Atlas of China] [Shanghai, Chung-hua shu-chü, 1948]). They are celebrated by poets, however, for their leaves in autumn, along with Nanking's Ch'i-hsia hills, Soochow's T'ienp'ing hills, and Peking's West Hills.

³⁵ Quoted by the People's Daily editorial (07 16, 1967)Google Scholar on the anniversary of Mao's recent swim across the Yangtze.

³⁶ They were married in 1921, and in 1930 she was apprehended and executed, together with Mao's sister, when Mao took to the hills and left them in Changsha. See Jui, Li, op. cit., p. 25Google Scholar; and San, Hsiao, Mao Tse-tung t'ung-chih te ch'ing-shaonien shih-tai [The Youth and Childhood of Comrade Mao Tse-tung] (Peking, 1949), p. 94Google Scholar. After writing Swimming, Mao vented himself in The Immortals (Written for Li Shu-i)^ab on May 11, 1957: “I lost my proud poplar, and you your willow …” (“poplar” or yang is the family name of Mao's examwife, and “willow” or liu is that of Li's husband), with the explanatory note, “I am sending you a poem describing an imaginary journey to heaven. This is different from ancient poems of this style, for the author himself is not the traveller; but similar cases can be found in poems about the Cowherd and Weaving Maid” (Nineteen Poems, pp. 30–31Google Scholar). For a revolutionary, Mao is meticulous in his observance of Chinese poetical tradition, which is to him, as to other poets, a way of life and a fulfillment.

³⁷ See Jui, Li, p. 19Google Scholar. The terms referred to Westernized modern Chinese intellectuals educated in foreign universities, the more or less “orchid class,” in A. Tagore's words (op. cit., p. 8), which gradually came to the helm of China's national affairs in the first quarter of the century. It cost less to get the “plating” in nearby Japan, which was also easier because of the “common language;” hence the lesser rating.

³⁸ “In Praise of the Orange-Tree,”^aeHawkes, , Ch'u Tz'u, p. 77Google Scholar. The orange tree flourishes in its habitat in snow and frost while others wither, but refuses to thrive in an alien clime across the River Huai. Cf. Chou-li [Rites of Chou], ch. 11 (TSCC ed.), 278.

³⁹ “What others take a few years to do,” he told his students, “I will take a few decades, and I have no fear that I will not succeed.” He cited as examples Darwin and his theory of evolution, Spencer and his Principles of Ethics, Ssu-ma Kuang and his “General Mirror” of history (q.v. n. 18), which all took from ten to twenty years to accomplish. See Jui, Li, p. 23.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid., p. 24.

⁴¹ Nineteen Poems, p. 17Google Scholar. Cf. Tu Fu's line, “The Red Buff and White Salt [mountains] both pierce the sky” (“K'uei-chou [Szechwan],”^ae 4th of 10 quatrains, op. cit., ch. 15, ts'e 6, 120).Google Scholar

⁴² Chinese Literature, No. 5, 1966, 13–14.Google Scholar

⁴³ Ts'eng-lin chin-jan (line 5 ),^f literally, “Terraced woods all dyed [red].” The word jan or “dyed” was used with dramatic effect by the Yiian playwright Wang Shih-fu (ca. 1260) in his lines which became famous: “At dawn who has dyed the frosted woods [red] with intoxication? It must be parting couples' tears”^ag (Hsi-hsiang chi [The Western Chamber], Part 4, Act 3 ). Legend has it that the tu-chüan ^ah or goatsucker, whose nostalgic cry in the night sounds like pu-ru-kuei-ch'ü ^al [“Better go home!”], would call out until blood falls from its eyes in tears. Cf. Ou-yang Hsiu, “Lyric to Yü-lou-ch'un,”^aj 26th of 29 verses (Ouyang Yung-shu chi, “New yüeh-fu,” ch. 2 [WYWK ed.], ts'e 15, 28).

⁴⁴ See Li Tao-yüan (d. 527) Shui-ching chu [Commentary on the Water Classic], ch. 38 (WYWK ed.) ts'e 6, 87Google Scholar. Cf. Liu Ch'ang-ch'ing (fl. 733): “… At dusk on the deep Hsiao and Hsiang —/The Hsiang river is clear and visible to the bottom …” (“Arriving at Buffalo Cave by the Kuei River,”^akLiu Siu-chou chi [SPPY ed.], 10:4a).

⁴⁵ Pai-ko cheng-liu (line 7),^f literally, “Hundred boats vie in the stream.” Cf. painter Ku K'ai-chih's (341–402) depiction of the scenery of Kuei-chi in Chekiang: Ch'ien-yen ching-hsiu, tvan-ho chengliu,^al “Thousand cliffs compete in elegance, myriad gullies vie in the stream.” See Liu I-ch'ing (403–444), Shih-shuo hsin-yü [Contemporary Talks], ch. 2 (Hong Kong, 1966), p. 34.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Huai-nan-tzu (SPTK ed.), 10:4a. When Hsieh T'iao (464–499) was recalled from his post due to the slander of his colleague, he compared himself to the scattering birds:

“Often beset by the falcon's strike,

As chrysanthemums withered in the frost.

Please tell the falconer,

[I] have made off into the depth of the blue.”

(“To My Colleagues at the Western Command …”^amHsieh Hsüan-ch'eng shih-chi [Collected Poems], ch. 3 [WYWK ed.], 24).

⁴⁷ “Mid-Autumn Night at the Wu[-sung] River Pavillion,”^anSu Shun-ch'in chi, ch. 2 (Peking, 1961), p. 20Google Scholar. Cf. “Cheng-yüeh”^ao in the Book, of Odes: “Although the fish sink and lie at the bottom, it is still quite clearly seen” (The Chinese Classics, tr. James Legge, I, 431Google Scholar; IV, 319). The Chinese lung,^ap ironically called “dragon,” is “associated with rain and floods” (Giles, , Chinese-English Dictionary, p. 933Google Scholar) and the hopes and despairs of an agricultural society which has no use for something “breathing out fire and smoke” like the European dragon.

⁴⁸ See Chou Chen-fu and Tsang K'o-chia in Mao chu-hsi shih-tz'u chiang-chieh [Chairman Mao's Poems with Notes and Appreciation] (Peking, 1962), pp. 7 and 57Google Scholar, citing “Han-lu”^aq in the Book, of Odes (Legge, IV, 445). “Han-lu” is misprinted “Tsao-lu.”

⁴⁹ Newsweek (06 17, 1968), p. 3.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary (London, 1935?), p. 6Google Scholar. In 1934, Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek tried to rally the nation to the Confucian ethics of propriety and honesty by his “New Life Movement,” with an appeal to the sense of shame. But his effort was against the tide. Wei Ying-wu (737-?) had a poem entitled Yüan to ch'ao ^ar [“The Kite Robs a Nest”] (Wei Su-chou chi, ch. 9Google Scholar [WYWK ed.], 369):

“Magpie, magpie, builds its nest on a twig; The kite takes the nest with superior might. It swallows the magpie's liver, and picks the magpie's brains, Preserving itself by stealing food and lodging. The splendid phoenix is revered by all birds. Why has he said nothing against the kite's havoc? …”

But what good was it for him to say anything— outcried, outnumbered, and outmoded?

⁵¹ Translated from the Chinese in Lu Hsün shihchi [Collected Poems] (Peking, 1959), pp. 3abGoogle Scholar; cf. Lu Hsün jih-chi [Diary] (Shanghai, 1951), p. 798Google Scholar. Interpolations are mine.

⁵² See Mao Tse-tung, “Introducing a Co-operative,” Hung-ch'i [Red Flag], June 1, 1958, pp. 3–4; tr. Peking Review, 06 10, 1958, p. 6.Google Scholar

⁵³ See Jui, Li, p. 42Google Scholar. Cf. Paulsen's statement, “All work, all civilization, consist in overcoming such obstacles,” in A System of Ethics, tr. Frank Thilly (New Jersey 1908), chap. 4, 322.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Jui, Li. loc. cit. Cf. A System of Ethics, p. 327Google Scholar: “All historical institutes are the product of a struggle between good and evil.”

⁵⁵ Chin-shu [History of the Chin Dynasty] (Pona ed.), 62:9b–10a.

⁵⁶ “An Exhortation,”^atThe Works of Li Po, tr. Shigeyoshi Obata (Tokyo, 1935), p. 86.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Chin-shu, loc. cit.; San, Hsiao, pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Chin-shu, loc. cit.; Ch'ang-feng, Ch'en, op. cit., p. 35.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Chin-shu, loc. cit. “In these past few years,” recalled Ch'en Ch'ang-feng (op. cit., p. 13), “Chairman Mao had become like a father to me, concerning himself with my daily life and training.” Chinese history is replete with paternal precedents. The emperor T'ai-tsung of the T'ang wailed at the memorial services for his fallen soldiers, and personally sucked the arrow wound of his sinicised Turkic general Li Ssu-mo. The army was moved to tears, and the parents of the dead felt no regret (Chen-kuang cheng-yao [Administrative Highlights of the Chen-kuang Reign Period 627–649] [SPPY ed.], 6:9b). The famous Wei general Wu Ch'i of the 4th century B.C. sucked his enlisted man's ulcers. When news came to the man's mother, she wept. “Years ago, General Wu sucked the ulcers of the boy's father, and he soon died in action. Now the General again sucked the boy's. Where is he going to die next?” (Kuang, Ssu-ma, Tzu-chih t'ung-chien, op. cit., ch. 1 [Peking, 1956Google Scholar, new punctuated and paragraphed ed.], 21).

⁶⁰ Wu Ch'iao (1611–1680+), Wei-lu shih-hua [Fireside Chats on Poetry], ch. 1 (TSCC ed.), 8. (I based my datings of Wu on his ridicule of his friends for offering to write him congratulatory poems on his sixtieth birthday in 1670, as a result of which none mentioned about such artificialities again in 1680 [ch. 4, 102].) When the Ming emperor Ch'eng-tsu (reigned 1403–1424) commanded his court to compose poems on a painting of a tiger looking back at his cubs, Hsieh Chin^au (1369–1415) wrote:

“The tiger is revered by all beasts.

Who dares to rouse his anger?

But the love of a father

Makes him turn his head back at every step.”

The emperor, who had not been fond of the Crown Prince and had earlier sent him away to Nanking from the capital, immediately dispatched an envoy to fetch him back after reading the poem. See Ch'en Chi-ju (1588–1639), Hu-hui [Collected Tiger Anecdotes], ch. 5 (TSCC ed.), 70.

⁶¹ Tay, ibid. The mild, gentle lines of Plum Blossoms dated Dec. 1962 presaged the cataclysmic cultural revolution:

“… Elegant but not vying for spring, She only ushers spring in.

And when the whole mountainside is in bloom, She smiles in the grove.”

To herald the return of spring and summon the whole mountainside to bloom is to rally the faithful to “true revolutionary Marxism-Lenism” and “cultivate millions of successors to carry on the cause.” Winter Clouds dated 12 26, 1962Google Scholar, was even more elusive. The last line in the closing couplet apparently referred to “the spate of international revisionism:”

“A sky of snow is the plum blossom's delight,

It's nothing strange (or little wonder),

if flies freeze to death.”

The Chinese text reads, Tung ssu ts'ang-ying weitsu ch'i,^av which means literally, “Freezing to death fly (or flies) [is] not enough wonder.” As events turned out, my sister Vidyā noticed that wei-tsu or “not enough” was equivalent to shao ^aw or “little.” By substituting shao for wei-tsu, the last three words became [Liu?] Shao-ch'i.

⁶² “Letter to Yüan Chen,”^axPo Hsiang-shan chi, ch. 28 (WYWK ed.), ts'e 5, 30.Google Scholar

⁶³ “Acknowledging Old Sun Hsin's Gift of Some Inksticks,”^ayop. cit., ch. 14, ts'e 4, 31Google Scholar, last of 4 verses.

⁶⁴ Nineteen Poems, p. 45.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ “Reply to Ch'i-yüan's [Ch'eng Chin-fang] Letter on Poetry,”^azHsiao-ts'ang-shan-fang wenchi [Collected Writings] (Shanghai, Wen-ming shuchu), 30:1b.

⁶⁶ See Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Yin-ping-shih shih-hua [Soda Fountain's Talks on Poetry] (Taipei reprint of Shanghai, 1936 ed.), pp. 2 and 41. Cf. Ch'ien Chung-lien, Jen-ching-lu shih-ts'ao chien-chu [Anrotated Poems of Huang Tsun-hsien] (Shanghai, 1957), esp. ch. 1, 15–16, “My hand writes my mouth …”

⁶⁷ “On the Form of Poetry,” Shih yü p'i-p'ing [Poetry and Criticism], op. cit., p. ting 245.

⁶⁸ Foreword, Yü Ta-fu shih-tz'u ch'ao [Poems], ed. Lu Tan-lin (Hong Kong, 1962), p. i. “Most of the older writers of the May 4 [1919] period could write classical poems,” observed the critic Liu Tachieh,^ba “but only Lu Hsün and Yü Ta-fu's works are worthy of particular note” (cited in Shuangfeng [Lu Tan-lin], “Preface to Yü Ta-fu's Poems,” I-lin ts'ung-lu [Collected Reprints of Essays on the Arts], I [Hong Kong, 1961], 60). “It takes a master of poetry,” said Liu Yü-hsi, “to express a multitude of feelings with a handful of words, and command the performance of a myriad scenes without leaving his seat” (“A Note on Wu-ling chi by Master Tung [T'ing],”^bbop. cit., 23:14b).

⁶⁹ A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (New York, 1919), p. 22.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Ou-pei shih-hua [Comments on Poetry] ch. 6 (Peking, 1963), 80.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Nineteen Poems, p. 22.Google Scholar

⁷² Fen-wai yao'jao,^be literally, “Exceedingly enchanting.” Cf. the lines of sedate statesman Ouyang Hsiu in his lighter moments: “Her brows when she's singing, her waist when she's dancing:/ No part of her is not yao-jao [enchanting]” (“Lyric to Su chung-ch'ing,”^bd Liu-i tz'u [Lyrics of Ouyang Hsiu] [Hong Kong, 1960], p. 67, appended from Sung dynasty wood-block print ed.).

⁷³ Cf. Han Yü: “The banks clutch like long snakes,/The mounds clash like giant elephants” (“Snow, Written for Chang Chi,”^qq.v. n. 23).

⁷⁴ Cf. Tu Fu: “Heroes rose in contention here in past dynasties;/All-embracing kingship is seen here in the present” (“K'uei-chou,”^ao 3rd of 10 quatrains, q.v. n. 41).

⁷⁵ Wang Lin-ch'uan chi, ch. 37 (WYWK ed.), ts'e 4, 70Google Scholar. The fourth line hails from Hsieh T'iao: “The limpid river lies quiet like a breadth of dressed silk” (“Ascending the Three Hills and Looking Back at the Capital at Dusk,”^bfop. cit., ch. 3, 32), which was acclaimed by Li Po and other poets.

⁷⁶ See Chang Tsung-hsiao (fl. 1736), Tz'u-lin chi-shih [Anecdotes of Tz'u Composers], ch. 4 (Shanghai, 1957), 113Google Scholar. Yeh hu ching ^bg or “wild fox sprite” signifies an “enchantress” in Buddhist terminology (Ch'uan-teng lu [The Transmission of the Light], ch. 12 [Taishō Daizōkyō, Vol. 51Google Scholar, 294c]). As members of opposite political camps, the two men admired one another's literary talents. Su enjoyed his moments with Wang when they could “hum verses and discuss Buddhism together” (“Letter to T'eng Ta-tao,”^bh 1st of 23, op. cit., hsüchi, ch. 4, ts'e 11, 12). And Wang was so fond of Su's poems that he composed seven of his own to the same rhyme (op. cit., ch. 16 and 18, ts'e 3, pp. 13 and 23Google Scholar resp.).

⁷⁷ I-shan hsien-sheng wen-chi [Collected Worlds of Yüan Hao-wen], ch. 1 (WYWK ed.), 1; cf. San, Hsiao, op. cit., p. 93.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Lyrics to Tung-hsien-ko ^bj and Nien-nu-chiao ^bk resp., op. cit., ch. 17, 188 and 184. Mao's spirited Plum Blossoms (q.v. n. 61) also is not without antecedent as some have claimed. Cf. Ch'en Liang's verse: “Intent on heralding the tidings of spring,/ She is not afraid of overwhelming snow …” (ibid., ch. 30, 371).

⁷⁹ See Ch'ang-sha fu-chih [Local History of Changsha] (1749 ed.), 3:29b.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Op. cit., 3:1b.

⁸¹ Wei-nan wen-chi, 49:8aGoogle Scholar, in Lu Vang-weng ch'üan-chi, op. cit.

⁸² See Yü-sheng, Lung, Tung-p'o yüeh-fu chien [Annotated Lyrics of Su Tung-p'o], ch. 1 (Shanghai, 1958), I, 29bGoogle Scholar. Cf. Fu, Tu, “To Minister Wei [Chi],”^bmop. cit., ch. 1, ts'e 2, 42.Google Scholar

⁸³ First of six poems “hummed into rhyme on horseback between 1929 and 1931,” Chinese Literature. No. 1, 1963, 4–5.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Ibid.Chin-ou or “golden bowl” signifies one nation strong and indivisible. Cf. the impassioned lines of sculptress-educator Linda Wu^bo amidst the cries of “Two Chinas:” “When good friends come together, how can we bear to talk of the golden bowl falling to pieces?/When the conversation turns to our homeland, our tears are streaming”^bp (“Reply to Prof. Wu Ts'ao-ch'ih's Feelings on Double Tenth Eve,” Hua-Mei jih-pao [The China Tribune], New York, 10 15, 1968, p. 5).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Fan-ch'uan shih-chi [Collected Poems of Tu Mu] (SPPY ed.), 4:13b–14a. In the SPTK facs. reprod. of the Ming-dynasty wood-block print ed. (Fan-ch'uan wen-chi, op. cit., 4:8aGoogle Scholar), t'ai-chi ^br [“mossy rocks”] is erroneously engraved ta-chi.

⁸⁶ The attribution is not verifiable, nor is the legend that the emperor then became a Buddhist monk. According to Prof. Meng Sen, the emperor was a lay disciple of Monk T'ung-hsiu^bs (1614–1675) of Hangchow, and had adopted the religious name “Hsing-ch'ih,”^bthsing being the genealogical designation shared by the monk's immediate disciples, and ch'ih, meaning “foolish,” was the emperor's own choice. See Ch'ing-tai shih [History of the Ch'ing Dynasty] (Taipei, 1960 reprint ed.), p. 455Google Scholar. Regardless of the authorship, it took only four seven-word lines for a master of classical Chinese poetry to epitomize China's early history and geography and the vicissitudes of man and empire—“so concise and covenient”, as Yü Ta-fu declared.

⁸⁷ From the translation by Andrew Boyd in Nineteen Poems, p. 28.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Chan-kuo ts'e [Intrigues of the Waning States] (SPPY ed.), 33:1b.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ The Shui-tiao ka-t'ou ^bu or “Opening Section of the Water Melody” is also called K'ai-ko ^bw or “Victory Melody.” Mao's lyric uses rhyme words in the yü^bx group, viz: yü (fish), shu (open), k'uang-yü (free), fu (an interrogative particle) in the first stanza; and t'u (plan), t'ung-tu (thoroughfare), hu (lake), shu (changed)^by in the second; which require a whistling mouth shape with puckered lipss to enunciate.

⁹⁰ cf. “The Long March” dated Oct 1935, Nineteen Poems, p. 18Google Scholar. Cheng Hsieh (1693–1765) inscribed on his painting, “Bamboo and Rock:”

“Bite firm the green hill and don't let go, For you are rooted in the worn rock.

A thousand blows and a myriad beatings have fallen, but you're tenacious as ever: Come winds from east and west, from north and south!”

(Cheng Pan-ch'iao chi [Peking, 1962], p. 175Google Scholar). Mao's sweeping, unbridled calligraphy, which Lin Piao seems trying in vain to imitate, bears remarkable resemblance to Cheng Hsieh's composite “seal,” “scribe,” “regular” and “grass” style.

⁹¹ “Snow,” Nineteen Poems, p. 22.Google Scholar

⁹² “The Constant Symbol,” introductory essay to The Poems of Robert Frost (Modern Library ed., 1946), p. xvi.Google Scholar

⁹³ Giles, Herbert A., A History of Chinese Literature (1923), p. 50Google Scholar. “… Thus the speaker (poet) commits no offense, and the listener (reader) is duly admonished” (Wei Ch'ing-chih [fl. 1265], Shih-jen yü-hsieh [Gems of Poetical Comments], ch. 6 [Shanghai, 1958], 127).Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Yüeh-fu shih-chi [Anthology of Ballads], ed. Kuo Mou-ch'ien (ca. 1200), ch. 79 (WYWK ed.), 898–99, introductory notes to Shui-tiao-ko [“Water Melody”].

⁹⁵ Sui-shu [History of the Sui Dynasty] (Po-na ed.), 3:11a.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ A glimpse of the occasion may be gleaned on a minor scale from Peller Malcolm's chatty account of George's party: “August 22, 1715. The king, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and a large party of nobility, went in barges with music from Whitehall to Limehouse. When they returned in the evening, the captains of shipping suspended lanterns in the rigging, and the houses on both sides of the river were illuminated, and incredible number of boats filled wth spectators attended on the royal party …” (Victor Schoelcher, Life of Handel [New York, 1857], p. 62, citing Malcolm's Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London During the Eighteenth Century [London, 1811]).

⁹⁷ Yüeh-fu shih-chi, loc. cit.

⁹⁸ Ho-chuan ^ca [“River Melody”] (Hua-chien-chi, op. cit., 7:10b).

⁹⁹ Mencius, “Liang Hui-wang,” hsia, IV, 6Google Scholar (The Chinese Classics, II, 159–60).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Huan T'an (24 B.C–56 A.D.), Hsin-lun [New Discourses] (SPPY ed.), p. 20a.

¹⁰¹ Prefatory notes to “The Southern Dynasties,”^ebop. cit., p. 92.

¹⁰² See Mao chu-hsi shih-tz'u, op. cit.

¹⁰³ “Everybody knows that the enemy is hateful,” wrote Liu Tsung-yüan (773–819) in his essay on “The Enemy”^ce cited by the People's Daily article, “Refuting Bundy,” on Feb. 20, 1966, “but not that he is also most useful; that he is harmful, but not that he is also most beneficial.” “A great enemy,” added the article, will “make us work harder” and “keep us always on the alert and sharpen our fighting spirit” (tr. Peking Review, No. 9 [02 25, 1966], 10–11Google Scholar). Cf. Liu Ho-tung chi [Collected Works of Liu Tsung-yüan], ch. 19 (Peking, 1960), 342.

¹⁰⁴ “Dining at Prime Minister Li's House with Fellow Successful Candidates at the Palace Examination,”^edop. cit., ch. 1, 4.

¹⁰⁵ Confucian Analects, “Tzu-han,” XVI (cf. The Chinese Classics, I, 222Google Scholar). Cf. Tennyson: “For men may come and men may go,/But I go on forever” (“The Brook”).

¹⁰⁶ “Letter to Counselor Fan [Chung-yen],”^ceop. cit., ch. 10, 137.

¹⁰⁷ The mile-long Yangtze bridge between Wuchang and Hanyang then under construction was officially opened on Oct. 15, 1957.

¹⁰⁸ T'ien-ch'ien,^cf literally “natural moat,” is rendered “deep chasm” in line 14. Cf. Yo K'o's (1173–1240?) usage, “From of old the t'ien-ch'ien has separated the north and south” (“Pei-ku Pavillion” to the melody Tsu Ying-t'ai chin,^eg in Yang Shen [1488–1559], Tz'u-p'in [Classification of Tz'u Composers], ch. 5 [Hong Kong, 1961], 147).

¹⁰⁹ See Mao chu-hsi shih-tz'u chiang-chieh, p. 44.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Erh-ya i-su [Commentary on the Lexicon], “Shih-ku” (WYWK ed.), ts'e 1, 55.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Wen-hs'üan [Anthology of Literature], ed. Hsiao T'ung (501–531) (SPPY ed.), 41:5a.

¹¹² Hsin-sheng chi [Voice of the Heart] (Hong Kong, 1963), p. 16Google Scholar, last of 5 verses on “Parting, Written for [Shen] Hsing-yüan (Mrs. Wang).”

¹¹³ Old Wuchang was renamed “O-ch'eng” after the revolution when the name “Wuchang” was given to Chiang-hsia, the site of the historic mutiny of 1911.

¹¹⁴ See Tzu-chih t'ung-chien, op. cit., ch. 79, 2499 and 2501.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ San, Hsiao, pp. 41–42Google Scholar. Soldiering, despised elsewhere in China, is a leading profession in Mao's native place. As the saying goes, “There is no town wrthout kiangsi [merchants] and no army without Hunanese”. For a detailed description of the Wells, see Chüeh-chin, Fu, Hu-nan ti-li chih [Local Geography of Hunan] (Wuchang, 1933), p. 312.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ “Departing from T'an-chou (Changsha),”^ekop. cit., ch. 22, ts'e 9, 31.

¹¹⁷ “Seeing Master Fei Off on His Return to Wuchang (O-ch'eng),”^el (T'ang pai-chia shih-hs'üan [Selected Poems of One Hundred T'ang Masters], ed. Wang An-shih, ch. 4 [WYWK ed.], 42).

¹¹⁸ Hu-nan t'ung-chih [Local History of Hunan] (Shanghai, 1934, facs. reprod. of 1885 ed.), p. 6011.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Chiang-hsia hsien-chih [Local History of Chiangsia (Modern Wuchang)], 1869 ed., 5:37b.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ “Drinking water” connotes poverty or lack of success. Li Yüan-tu (fl. 1630) said that he was “unsuccessful all my life, sipping gruel and drinking water” (Foreword in Hung Mai [1123–1202], Jung-chat sui-pi [Miscellaneous Notes]). Tzu-lu (ca. 542–480 B.C,) was grieved by his poverty which kept him from doing his duty as a son Confucius said: “Make your parents happy) and you have done your filial duty even if they are sipping bean [gruel] and drinking water” (Li-chi [Book of Rites], “T'an-kung,” hsia [SPPY ed.], 3:11a).

¹²¹ when the emperor T'ai-tsung of the T'ang ascended the throne in 627, he was apprehensive that the people might become unruly after the long chaos. “No, sire,” advised Wei Tseng (580–643). “A people that has enjoyed extended peace and prosperity may become arrogant and indolent, and being so it is intractible. But one that has been through long periods of anarchy and disorder is distressed. Being distressed it is susceptible to law and order, just as the hungry are easy to feed, and the thirsty are easy to satisfy” (Tzu-chih t'ung-chien. ch. 193, 6084).Google Scholar

¹²² Nineteen Poems, p. 38.Google Scholar

¹²³ Ibid., p. 37

¹²⁴ Kao-tang fu ^cm [“Rhymeprose on Kaot'ang”], Wen-hsüan, op. cit., 19:1b–2a.

¹²⁵ Shen-nü fu ^cm [“Rhymeprose on the Goddess”] ibid 19–5a.

¹²⁶ Wang Chao-yün, however, was not the first to be called Chao-yün ^co or “Morning Cloud.” Prince Yüan (Toba) Shen (fl. 520) had a maid by that name who was an expert player of the ch'ih ^ep a seven-hole bamboo flute. See Yang Hsüan-chih (fl. 548), Lo-yang ch'ia-lan chi [Notes on the Buddhist Temples of Loyang] (SPPY ed.), 4:6b.

¹²⁷ Cf. Tu Fu's allusion: “King Hsiang spared his footsteps …/[The Goddess] wiped her eternal tears” (“Reply to Sub-Perfect Hsüeh,”^eqop. cit., ch. 19, ts'e 8, 28). “King Hsiang's sparse footsteps,” explained the commentary, “indicate heartlessness.”

¹²⁸ Cf. Juan Chi (210–263): “The three lands of Ch'u abounded in talented men,/ And Morning Cloud offered them sensual gratification” (“Feeings,”^er last of 17 verses, Wen-hsüan, 23:6a).Google Scholar

¹²⁹ Jen-chien tz'u-hua [Wang Kuo-wei's Comments on Tz'u] (Hong Kong, 1961 reprint ed), p 225 cf Han Yü: “When there is inequity, things cry out” (“Written for Meng Chiao”^csop. cit., ch. 19, ts'e 5, 7): “It is easy to excel with sounds of sorrow” (cited by Sung Lo [1634–1713] in Preface to Mei Yao-ch'en [1002–1060], Wanling chi [SPPY ed.]).

¹³⁰ The poetry of Mao Tse-tung is replete with allusions to Chinese mythology. In The Immortals (q.v. n. 36), we see Wu Kang, the legendary chopper of the cassia tree in the moon, presenting his cassia wine to the spirits of the poet's wife and friend, and “The lonely goddess in the moon spreads her ample sleeves/To dance for these good souls in the endless sky.”

¹³¹ See Hu Tsai (fl. 1147), T'iao-ch'i yü-yin ts'ung-hua [The Fisher Hermit's Collected Comments], hou-chi, ch. 33 (WYWK ed.), 667. Li Ch'ing-chao was referring resp. to Huang Tingchien (1045–1105) and Ch'in Kuan (1049–1100).

¹³² Ibid, ch'ien-chi, ch. 10, 64. “The taste of salt remains,” explained Lin Shu,^et “but its form is not visible” (Wei-lu lun-wen [Lin Shu on Literature] [Shanghai, 1921], 3a).

¹³³ Ch'uan-teng-lu, op. cit., ch. 30 (Taishō Daizōkyō, Vol. 51, 456c).Google Scholar

¹³⁴ Tung-p'o wen-t'an lu [Su Tung-p'o's Talks on Literature], ed. Ch'en Hsiu-ming (ca. 1350) (TSCC ed.), p. 10. When Ou-yang Hsiu, the literary giant and greatest patron of literary talents of his time, heard this, he said: “Bravo! I should step aside and let him come into prominence” (“Letter to Mei Sheng-yü,” op. cit., ch. 6, ts'e 17, 46).

¹³⁵ Wen-hsin tiao-lung (SPPY ed.), 9:12a; cf. The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, tr. Shih, Vincent (New York, 1959), p. 234.Google Scholar

¹³⁶ Han-shu [History of the Han Dynasty] (Pona ed.), 87B:17aGoogle Scholar. Fu-pou ^ev or “covering [pickle] jars” is the idiomatic expression for unpopular works, which serve the purpose as covering pads that conform to the shape of jar openings when moistened due to the absorbency of Chinese paper. “Heaven knows how many talented and extraordinary people have gone down in history without being noticed,” exclaimed Pao Chao (d. 466) when he wanted to present his poems to express himself to Liu I ch'ing (q.v. n. 45) and was told “Your position is still low for you to bother the great prince.” “Ability is all that counts for a scholar,” asserted his biographer Chang P'u (1602–1641). “What has rank to do with his worth?” (Biography and Foreword in Huang Chieh, Pao ts'an-chün shihchu [Annotated Poetry of Pao Chao] [Peking, 1957], pp. ii–iii). But Chang P'u was wrong. As John F. Kennedy pointed out, “life is unfair” (Newsweek, 09 30, 1968, p. 116).Google Scholar

¹³⁷ Liu Su (fl. 807), Ta-T'ang hsin-yü [Contemporary Talks of the T'ang], ch. 3 (Shanghai, 1957), 67.Google Scholar

¹³⁸ Not only genuine thread-bound books reappeared, but simulations were made by printing the appearance of stitching on the covers, e.g., Lu Pochun's Story of the Chinese Book (Peking, Foreign Languages Press, 1958)Google Scholar. Cf. n. 16; also Sources of Chinese Tradition, ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary et al. (New York, 1960), p. 840.Google Scholar

¹³⁹ “High school textbooks in literature,” noted a teacher in a letter to the editors of Yü-wen hsüehhsi [Language Study] (Peking, No. 76 [Jan. 1958], 36), “have included a large selection of ancient writings primarily to help the student understand our culture and social life of the past and enlarge his vision, so that he may take over the rich legacy and keep up the fine tradition of Chinese literature, and draw his own spiritual strength from the lofty character of accomplished ancient writers.”

¹⁴⁰ “Knowledge Rambling in the North”^ew (Ch'ing-fan, Kuo, Chuang-tzu chi-shih [Annotated Works of Chuang-tzu] [Taipei, 1967 reprint ed.], p. 320).Google Scholar

¹⁴¹ People's Daily, 05 12, 1962, p. 6.Google Scholar

¹⁴² See Wen-hui-pao (Hong Kong), 03 23, 1965, p. 6.Google Scholar

¹⁴³ Ibid., Jan. 6, 1964, p. 5.

¹⁴⁴ See Hua-Mei jih-pao (New York), 08 10, 1966, p. 4.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁵ See resp. Pai-mei shih-wu shih-ts'un [Selected Poems of the Hundred Plums Studio] (Peking, 1959)Google Scholar; Chu Teh shih hsüan-chi [Selected Poems of Chu Teh] (Peking, 1963)Google Scholar; and Tung-feng chi [East Wind] (Peking, 1963).Google Scholar

¹⁴⁶ Letter to the editors of Yü-wen hsüeh-hsi, ibid. “The breeze of classical composition has recendy swept the high schools. The black-board bulletin of our school receives more than twenty old-style poems a week, mostly half literary and half colloquial and difficult to understand.” “Not only senior high, but also junior high school students are composing,” added another. “They know nothing or very little about classical poetry, such as rhyme pattern, tone sequence, and line structure, thinking that by writing a given number of words they have come out with poetry …” But the teachers were unduly concerned. As Ting Hung^da (d. 94) had said, “A tree that reaches the clouds and hides the sun starts from a green sprout” (Hou-Han shu [History of the Later Han Dynasty] [Po-na ed.], 37:19ab).

¹⁴⁷ “Xuan Thuy, Hanoi's chief negotiator in Paris, published a poem here today telling of his reaction to the announcement Oct. 31 of the halt in the American bombing raids,” reported the New York Times (11 19, 1968, p. 18Google Scholar) under an Agence France-Presse Nov. 18 dateline from Hanoi. Mr. Thuy “wrote in the classic 14-quatrain form [sic] in the party newspaper Nhan Dan. His closing four-line stanza is addressed to the southern half of Vietnam, where ‘The fire-devoured palm tree grows fast.’” Thuy's metaphor is not unfamiliar in tropical south Florida, where palm trees are scorched before transplanting, and Vidyā (Cheng Hungyün) has a verse in which she lauded the “firedrinking palm,” whose “Scorched trunk touches the heavens with green foliage”^de (Jen-sheng Magazine, Hong Kong, 33:9–10 [Apr. 16, 1969], 31). For the works of earlier Vietnamese poets, see Ming shih tsung [Collected Poems of the Ming Dynasty], ed. Chu I-tsun (1629–1709), ch. 95B; Ch'ing shih hui (Wan-ch'ing-i shih-hui) [Collected Poems of the Ch'ing Dynasty], ed. Hsü Shih-ch'ang, ch. 200 (both available in Taipei reprint).

¹⁴⁸ Jen-sheng, 33:1 (05 16, 1968), 33Google Scholar. “Poetry is the art of poor people,” remarked Wen I-to. “It is therefore best suited to the materially impoverished Chinese” (“Letters,” op. cit., p. keng 77). As Chung Hung (fl. 513) had said, “To make poverty and humbleness easy to content with, and living in obscurity not depressing, nothing can surpass poetry” (Introduction to Shih-p'in [Classification of Poets]).

¹⁴⁹ Eastern Horizon, 3:3 (03, 1964), 4–5Google Scholar, citing L. P. Elewell-Sutton's communication to the London Observer Service on the Twenty-Sixth International Congress of Orientalists held in New Delhi.

¹⁵⁰ Tu Fu, T'ien-ch'ih ^ūg [“The Pond on High”] (op. cit., ch. 20, ts'e 8, 56).