CHINESE POETRY AND ITS CONNOTATIONS 



107 



in which they continually refer to it, and from the vivid 

 pictures suggested in reference to it, one can almost question 

 whether this Fairy World, the World of Imagination with its 



Ma Kit of The Western Paradise. 



inhabitants, was not as real to the writers of those early days 

 •as was the World of Sense. Thus the "Topography" of 

 Chinese poetry may be said to fall into three main divisions 

 :and the connotations are : 



1. — To the beautiful scenes in what are now the 

 "Eighteen provinces of China." 



2. — To the desolate region which lies beyond 

 the "Jade Pass." 



3. — To the glorious "Western Paradise." 

 Natural History. — In addition to the topographical 

 there were also the Zoological and Botanical backgrounds, 

 if they may be so. described, which play a most important 

 part in both Chinese poetry and in the twin art of painting. 

 It is almost a truism to remark that these manifestations of 

 art, poetry and painting, these mediums of spiritual expres- 

 sion should, in China, be studied together. "A picture is a 

 painted poem — a poem is a written picture." This thought 

 is uppermost in the mind of every Chinese scholar — and 

 scholar, poet, and painter are practically synonymous terms. 

 Zoology. — Broadly speaking the dragon may be said to 

 symbolize the forces of Heaven, the tiger those of earth. 

 The philosopher who by living a life of contemplation among 

 the mountains attains to Hsien-ship, that is to immortality, 

 Tnounts a "white dragon" and ascends to the Western Para- 



