THE ORGANIZATION OF A LYCHEE CLUB 161 



CHAPTER II 



The Lychee Club 



"The people of the Min-hao 1 region (though living near the 

 lychee districts) do not all see the lychee. To see this fruit, to 

 obtain some to eat during the ripening season, and when eating 

 to obtain one's fill, to taste all the famous varieties these, like 

 visiting the Mermaids' palace 2 and Ch'i Nu's 3 mansion to obtain 

 all one wants of bright pearls an inch through and coral branches 

 ten feet long, are not easy. The people of leisure in Wu 4 and 

 Yueh 5 (far distant from the lychee districts) who hear of this fruit 

 can enjoy it only through their ears, though the hearing of it makes 

 them imagine they can see it and causes their mouths to water so 

 profusely that they wet their feet and are compelled to roll up the 

 skirts of their robes, embarrassing them so that they do not know 

 what to do. There has been no lack of curious people in the world 

 who nevertheless do not travel a thousand or a hundred // to see 

 this fruit. The natives (living in lychee districts) are so accus- 

 tomed to seeing and hearing of this fruit that they do not appre- 

 ciate those bright pearls and corals and even regard them as being 

 no better than sweet peaches or sweet plums. So therefore I 

 have written the metaphors on "Unalloyed Bliss" and "Somber 

 Happenings" (see above). 6 



"My friends of the same tastes as myself in the village are 

 few and their capacity for eating lychee is very small. 7 Many 

 times I have wanted to invite a number of friends to form a club 

 like the Lien She 8 and the Mei She, 9 but for one reason or another 

 this wish was never realized. At the end of spring Fang Tzu-tao 

 came to see me and I talked to him about this subject. He was 

 pleased and said: 'Last summer while visiting in Yun-chien 10 I 

 earnestly thought about this fruit and now I shall not lightly reject 

 this opportunity.' Accordingly, on the 6th day of the 6th month 

 we began to meet in the Ts'ui family garden now belonging to the 



1 Fuchow in Fukien Province. 



2 The Shu I Chi (collection of notes on the wonderful, by Jn Fang of the early part of the 

 6th century) says that the Chiap Jn or Mermaids dwell under the water like fish, where they weave 

 without stopping and when their tears drop from their eyes they turn into pearls. See T'zii Yuan 

 p. 56, under the iQSth radical. 



3 This is the 'hao' or pseudonym of Shih Ch'ung, a man famous for his great wealth, which 

 he was fond of displaying. See Giles C. P. D., p. 651. 



4 Kiangsu Province. 



5 Chekiang Province. 



6 This introductory paragraph is so obscure and so full of hyperboles as to be difficult to 

 render literally in English. 



7 As compared with his own capacity to eat one or two thousand fruits a day. 



8 Lien She Lotus Club. 



9 Mei She Plum Blossom Club. 



Jo The present Huat'ing district in Sunkiang prefecture in Kiangsu. 



