82 FIR-FLOWER TABLETS 



could be shared with her readers by giving this suggested 

 Index. 



The poems are not the whole of this interesting volume. 

 We have a map of Ancient China, wisely introduced as a 

 guide to the location of the districts which are so frequently 

 referred to by their ancient names. We have a plan of a 

 Chinese house which seems more or less superfluous, but 

 Mrs. Ayscough's "Introduction" and "Notes" are very 

 valuable and in these she shows a commendable mastery 

 of her subject. She is by no means a pioneer in such work, 

 as can readily be seen from an examination of Cordier's 

 "Bibliotheca Sinica, " but she may justly claim to have 

 succeeded in stating her understanding of Chinese Poetry in 

 such a way that a new interest in it has been aroused in 

 the hitherto unmoved literary circles of the world. It caught 

 and fascinated Miss Lowell which is its first and greatest 

 result and it is sure to hold her. One may escape the 

 charm of things Chinese by ignoring them, but once an 

 acquaintance has been made, life-long friendship surely 

 follows. 



The Introduction was the first thing that attracted 

 me when I opened the volume and I read it through to the 

 end before reading a line of the poetry. My feeling, as I 

 read on and on, was that here were found at last sympathy 

 with and appreciation of the point of view of China's poetry; 

 and furthermore that neither of these necessary qualifications 

 had been allowed to obliterate the keen critical faculties of 

 Mrs. Ayscough. That which delights not infrequently 

 becomes a clog to discrimination, but it has not been so 

 with Mrs. Ayscough. Her nearest approach to a loss of 

 critical faculties is in her generous characterization of the 

 statements concerning the drunkeness of the T'ang period as 

 a "genial hyperbole." Unfortunately the facts of history 

 teach otherwise. The suggestiveness of "The Beautiful 

 Woman Encountered on a Field-path" (p. 49) and of "Moon 

 Night" is perfectly apparent in the original Chinese but 

 wisely, perhaps, is closely veiled in the translation. 



As compared with the Introduction of Charles Budd's 

 "Chinese Poems" Mrs. Ayscough has devoted dispropor- 

 tionate space to the two Chinese poets Li T'ai-po and 

 Tu Fu, neglecting all others. Budd's plan seems better 

 for the general reader. Waley's Introduction to his "170 

 Chinese Poems" (why the number was ever used in the 

 title of a collection of poems remains a mystery) is more 

 scholarly but less illuminating than Mrs. Ayscough's. 

 Waley's paragraph on "Technique" is absolutely essential 



