CHINESE POETRY AND ITS CONNOTATIONS 



109 



The female is the "Feng," the male the "Huang," and 

 the two words are used together or alone as the case may be. 

 It is not the symbol of "hope" or of eternal resurrection but 

 of love, friendship and affection of various kinds. It is also the 

 bird of good omen, and as it will only perch upon a Wu T'ung 

 fH fffl, a specimen of this tree should be planted before the 

 house, if one hopes for a visit from the Feng Huang and the 

 resulting happiness. After the Feng Huang, and sometimes 

 confused with it, comes the Luan a sacred bird connected 

 with fire and an emblem of love such as exists between 

 young men and women. Thus in an exquisite "Tz'u" by 

 Li T'ai Po a young wife in writing to her absent husband 

 describes how "nightly, nightly, she drowses alone under 

 the quilt of the "Luan" 3U on the bed of the "Huang." 

 The references to these birds — the Feng Huang, and the 

 Luan — are endless and always suggest affection of various 

 kinds. The Yuan Yang % ^ , that is the male and female of 

 the mandarin ducks, have, on the contrary, but one connota- 

 tion. A reference to these birds is .invariably a reference to 

 conjugal fidelity. To quote Li T'ai Po again, rather than be 

 separated these birds would find it "better by far to die ten 

 thousand deaths and to have their wings, which are like 

 coloured gauze, torn into fragments." 



It is impossible to speak of all the birds which are men- 

 tioned as connoting various virtues or characteristics, but 

 one cannot omit a reference to the wild geese who follow the 

 course of the sun, who fly in a perfectly straight line towards 

 the objective they wish to attain. Their arrival suggests' the 

 autumn — their departure the spiing. 



Supernatural Beings. — These can, perhaps, be classified 

 as well under "Natural History" as under any other term, 

 and of these, besides the "Hsien" already referred to, there 

 are the "Shen" m, the "Kuei" ft, and the "Yao Kuai" &&. 





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