“_Two green silk ropes, with painted stand, from heights aërial swing, And there outside the house a maid disports herself in spring. Along the ground her blood-red skirts all swiftly swishing fly, As though to bear her off to be an angel in the sky. Strewed thick with fluttering almond-blooms the painted stand is seen; The embroidered ropes flit to and fro amid the willow green. Then when she stops and out she springs to stand with downcast eyes, You think she is some angel just now banished from the skies._” [Sidenote: YEH SHIH--KAO CHÜ-NIEN] Better known as a statesman than as a poet is YEH SHIH (1150-1223). The following “stop-short,” however, referring to the entrance-gate to a beautiful park, is ranked among the best of its kind:-- “_’Tis closed!--lest trampling footsteps mar the glory of the green. Time after time we knock and knock; no janitor is seen. Yet bolts and bars can’t quite shut in the spring-time’s beauteous pall: A pink-flowered almond-spray peeps out athwart the envious wall!_” Of KAO CHÜ-NIEN nothing seems to be known. His poem on the annual spring worship at the tombs of ancestors is to be found in all collections:-- “_The northern and the southern hills are one large burying-ground, And all is life and bustle there when the sacred day comes round. Burnt paper ~cash~, like butterflies, fly fluttering far and wide, While mourners’ robes with tears of blood a crimson hue are dyed. The sun sets, and the red fox crouches down beside the tomb; Night comes, and youths and maidens laugh where lamps light up the gloom. Let him whose fortune brings him wine, get tipsy while he may, For no man, when the long night comes, can take one drop away!_” CHAPTER IV DICTIONARIES--ENCYCLOPÆDIAS--MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE Several dictionaries of importance were issued by various scholars during the Sung dynasty, not to mention many philological works of more or less value. The Chinese have always been students of their own language, partly, no doubt, because they have so far never condescended to look at any other. They delight in going back to days when correspondence was carried on by pictures pure and simple; and the fact that there is little evidence forthcoming that such a system ever prevailed has only resulted in stimulating invention and forgery.