Feb., 1912. Jade. 267 



bird immediately pounced upon and made its prey. And this it was 

 which had caused the bird to forget its own nature. 'Alas!' cried 

 Chuang-tse with a sigh, 'how creatures injure one another. Loss follows 

 the pursuit of gain.' " L 



Surely, this pretty allegorical story has impressed the minds of the 

 Chinese people deeper than the insipid account regarding Ts'ai Yung; 

 and the Han artists, it is more credible, drew on Chuang-tse as the source 

 for the motive of the mantis struggling with the cicada. Also Giles 

 comments in his translation: "This episode has been widely popu- 

 larised in Chinese every-day life. Its details have been expressed 

 pictorially in a roughly -executed woodcut, with the addition of a tiger 

 about to spring upon the man, and a well into which both will eventually 

 tumble. A legend at the side reads, — All is Destiny!" And in this 

 thought, I believe, we should seek also the explanation of the motive 

 on the Han jade buckle. Certainly, it does not mean such a banality 

 as that frigid "kill!" intimated by the philistine scribbler of the Ku yii 

 t'u p'u, but it was a memento mori to admonish its wearer: "Be as 

 brave as the mantis, fear not your enemy, but remember your end, as 

 also the undaunted mantis will end!" 



In another passage Chuang-tse exclaims: "Don't you know the 

 story of the praying-mantis? In its rage it stretched out its arms to 

 prevent a chariot from passing, unaware that this was beyond its 

 strength, so admirable was its energy! " 2 This is an allusion to another 

 famous story contained in the Han shih wai chuan, a work by Han Ying 

 who flourished between b. c. 178-156. It is there narrated: "When 

 Duke Chuang of Ts'i (b. c. 794-731) once went ahunting, there was a 

 mantis raising its feet and seizing the wheel of his chariot. He ques- 

 tioned his charioteer as to this insect who said in reply: ' This is a 

 mantis; it is an insect who knows how to advance, but will never know 

 how to retreat; without measuring its strength, it easily offers resistance.' 

 The Duke answered: ' Truly, if it were a man, it would be the cham- 

 pion-hero of the empire.' Then, he turned his chariot to dodge it, and 

 this act won him all heroes to go over to his side." 3 



Figure 1 70 represents a jade buckle adorned with the head of what is 

 apparently a wild sheep or antelope. The Ku yii t'u p'u entitles it with 

 the curious name shang yang * "which in form is like a sheep and pos- 



1 Giles, Chuang Tzu, Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer, p. 258 (London, 

 1889). 



2 Giles, /. c, p. 49. 



'Compare Ko chih king yuan, Ch. 100, p. 2. Petillon, Allusions litt£raires, 

 P- 385 (Shanghai, 1898). Lockhart, A Manual of Chinese Quotations, p. 335. 

 Pfizmaier, Denkwiirdigkeiten von den Insecten China's, p. 373 (Sitzungsberichte 

 der Wiener Akademie, 1874). 



4 Giles (No. 9738) explains the word "a one-legged bird, said to portend rain, 

 and imitated by children hopping about." 



