LING YIN MONASTERY POEM. 



15 



SUNG CHIH-WEN. 16 



Deeply embower'd in leaf the Eagle Eidge towers high : 

 Locked in the Dragon's Court the quiet spaces lie. 



15 The poem here translated is from the i( West Lake Eecords." It 

 is called a poem of the Ling Yin Monastery j| £fjt ^, but it is more 

 closely connected with the T'ao Kwang Convent |g ^ ^g, which is on 

 higher ground above Ling Yin, and may originally have been an 

 appendage of that large monastery. The third and fourth lines are 

 especially applicable to the T'ao Kwang Convent, which commands a 

 distant view of the Chientang River beyond the city of Hangchow, a 

 view which cannot be seen from the lower Ling Yin Monastery. At 

 the present day this couplet is to be found in a stone pavilion on the 

 hill side just above the T'ao Kwang Convent ; and in a book recently 

 published descriptive of the scenes in the neighbourhood of the West 

 Lake, in which two scholars of the well known Ting family had a 

 share (Ting Shang-tso "J* _h ^£, styled Chu-sun 4t $g, and Ting I-pu 

 "T $• 'ftj* styled Shuan-chih m. £.), it is also referred to that Convent. 



16 Sung Chih-wen $* £ ffi, styled T'ing-ch'ing g: ^ra, who died in 

 A.D. 710, was one of the most popular poets of his time. He was a 

 native of Fen-chou in Shansi, and we are told that his personal 

 appearance was martial and imposing. He became a military com- 

 mander, was involved in rebellions and many discreditable affairs, and 

 finally committed suicide. 



It is said that the Emperor Chung Tsung 684-710 (A.D.) was on 

 one occasion so pleased with his verses that he gave him his own 

 imperial robe of silk. 



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