488 Mr Davis on the Poetry qfthe Chinese, 



We now proceed to consider a very extensive department of Chinese 

 poetry, the Descriptive, which to us strangers must be the most agreeable 

 of all, and which really possesses some attractive features. Tiie whole 

 language abounds in figurative expressions, derived from the most pleasing 

 or most striking objects and circumstances in nature. Thus ' Spring 

 dreams and autumnal clouds' mean flitting visions of hajjpiness— unattain- 

 able good is represented by ' the riioon's reflection in the wave' — ' floating 

 clouds obscuring the day' express the temporary shade thrown by detrac- 

 tion on illustrious characters — difficulty of acting is figured by ' the grass 

 and tangle in one's path' — female beauty by the obvious and common 

 semblance of ' a fair flower' — ' spring' is the emblem of joy, ' autumn' of 

 sorrow — gladness is expressed by ' the heart's flowers being all full-blown ' 

 — the virtue of the female character is pictured under ' the white gem, the 

 pure crystal, the cold and transparent ice' — ' the season when peach-blos- 

 soms are in beauty' means that of marriage, because marriages were an- 

 ciently celebrated in spring — searchers after pleasure are depicted under the 

 figure of ' bees and butterflies among flowers' — and so on without end. 



There exist a great number of figurative allusions, which contain a particu- 

 lar reference to some event in history or romance ; and as the facts, or fables, 

 at which these only liint, cannot sometimes be discovered without the assist- 

 ance of a well-informed native, this circumstance constitutes a considerable 

 obstacle, in the present state of our knowledge, to the successful study of 

 Chinese poetry, any wliere but in the country itself The following are 

 examples of such allusions. ' The heart that responds to the lute,' means 

 yielding to seductive arts, and refers to the story of a young damsel named 

 Wunleitn, who being beloved by a youth called Szemd, was serenaded by 

 him on the lute, with a song called Foong kew hwong, or the " Bird foong 

 in search of its mate." The story says that Ke sin long, ' her heart was 

 moved,' and she eloped with her admirer towards morning, leaving the 

 traces of her flight along the dewy patiiway. 



A triateful return for benefits is implied under these expressions : — ' The 

 spirit which knit the grass' — and ' the bird that brought the yellow flowers.' 

 1. An emperor of the dynasty called C/iuxv, enjoined it on his son and suc- 

 cessor to bury alive, after the old Scythian or Tartar fashion, one of his 

 favourite mistresses in the same grave with himself. The son, however, 

 refrained from executing this portion of tlie imperial will, on the ground 



