CHINESE POETRY AND ITS CONNOTATIONS 123 



and the desire of every family was that its daughters should 

 come before the Emperor's notice, therefore the most beauti- 

 ful and talented young girls from throughout the Empire 

 were sent to the Imperial Palace where, however, they often 

 lived and died without once appearing before the Son of 

 Heaven. 



Many tragic poems have been written by these sad ladies 

 who dragged out a long life of uselessness and idleness amid 

 luxurious surroundings, and many charming romances in 

 connection with the Palace women have taken place ; the 

 romances being made possible by the custom of periodically 

 dispersing and marrying to commoners, those Palace women 

 who had not been brought before the Emperor. Two of the 

 most famous cases are those of Han Ts'ai P'in $1 Sic IS and 

 Shih Shih 2? J% . The former in despair at the emptiness of 

 her life threw a red leaf upon which she had written some 

 lines of poetry into the Palace Canal, this was picked up by 

 a noted scholar who wrote a reply upon another leaf, — this 

 was found by Han Ts'ai Pin. As good fortune would have 

 it when the Palace ladies were dispersed some ten years 

 later the lady was married to the scholar, by that time a 

 Han Lin, and found the leaf upon which she had written 

 carefully preserved among his books. From that day to this 

 the term "Bed Leaf" connotes a marriage go-between. 



Shih Shih was also a Palace woman who lived in the 

 days of Li Shih-min when the number of such was very great. 

 During the times when the troops were fighting on the 

 northern borders and had need of wadded garments to protect 

 them from the rigours of winter, the women were employed 

 in making these. As she worked Shih Shih was overcome 

 with grief at the thought that the garment she was making 

 should really be for her husband — that the joys of married 

 life were never to be hers, so writing a sad little poem she 

 placed it in the pocket of the garment upon which she was 

 engaged. The soldier to whose lot the coat fell, found the 

 poem and carried it to the General in command who in turn 

 brought it to the notice of the Emperor. Li Shih-min & ft Si 

 immediately entered the women's apartments and asked 

 from whose hand it had come. Shih Shih tremblingly con- 

 fessed to being the author, adding that she quite realized 

 that she should "die ten thousand deaths" for such infidelity. 

 Imagine her joy when the great Emperor decreed that she 

 should suffer no penalty but should marry the soldier who 

 had found the poem. 



In striking contrast to the unfortunates who lived thus 

 cloistered was the lot of the "beauty" who captured the 

 Imperial fancy, who through her influence over the Son of 



