Another leading poet of the day was SUNG YÜ, of whom we know little beyond the fact that he was nephew of Ch‘ü Yüan, and like his uncle both a statesman and a poet. The following extract exhibits him in a mood not far removed from the lamentations of the _Li Sao_:-- “_Among birds the phœnix, among fishes the leviathan holds the chiefest place; Cleaving the crimson clouds the phœnix soars apace, With only the blue sky above, far into the realms of space; But the grandeur of heaven and earth is as naught to the hedge-sparrow race._ _And the leviathan rises in one ocean to go to rest in a second, While the depth of a puddle by a humble minnow as the depth of the sea is reckoned._ _And just as with birds and with fishes, so too it is with man; Here soars a phœnix, there swims a leviathan ... Behold the philosopher, full of nervous thought, with a flame that never grows dim, Dwelling complacently alone; say, what can the vulgar herd know of him?_” As has been stated above, the poems of this school are irregular in metre; in fact, they are only approximately metrical. The poet never ends his line in deference to a prescribed number of feet, but lengthens or shortens to suit the exigency of his thought. Similarly, he may rhyme or he may not. The reader, however, is never conscious of any want of art, carried away as he is by flow of language and rapid succession of poetical imagery. Several other poets, such as Chia I and Tung-fang So, who cultivated this particular vein, but on a somewhat lower plane, belong to the second century B.C., thus overlapping a period which must be regarded as heralding the birth of a new style rather than occupied with the passing of the old. * * * * * It may here be mentioned that many short pieces of doubtful age and authorship--some few unquestionably old--have been rescued by Chinese scholars from various sources, and formed into convenient collections. Of such is a verse known as “Yao’s Advice,” Yao being the legendary monarch mentioned in chapter ii., who is associated with Shun in China’s Golden Age:-- “_With trembling heart and cautious steps Walk daily in fear of God ... Though you never trip over a mountain, You may often trip over a clod._” There is also the husbandman’s song, which enlarges upon the national happiness of those halcyon days:-- “_Work, work;--from the rising sun Till sunset comes and the day is done I plough the sod And harrow the clod, And meat and drink both come to me, So what care I for the powers that be?_” [Sidenote: INSCRIPTIONS]