and he comes across a famine-stricken woman who had thrown among the bushes a child she was unable to feed. Arriving at the Great River, the setting sun brings his feelings to a head:-- “_Streaks of light still cling to the hill-tops, While a deeper shade falls upon the steep slopes; The fox makes his way to his burrow, Birds fly back to their homes in the wood, Clear sound the ripples of the rushing waves, Along the banks the gibbons scream and cry, My sleeves are fluttered by the whistling gale, The lapels of my robe are drenched with dew. The livelong night I cannot close my eyes. I arise and seize my guitar, Which, ever in sympathy with man’s changing moods, Now sounds responsive to my grief._” But music cannot make him forget his kith and kin-- “_Most of them, alas! are prisoners, And weeping will be my portion to the end. With all the joyous spots in the empire, Why must I remain in this place? Ah, like the grub in smartweed, I am growing insensible to bitterness._” By the last line he means to hint “how much a long communion tends to make us what we are.” There was YING YANG, who, when his own political career was cut short, wrote a poem with a title which may be interpreted as “Regret that a Bucephalus should stand idle.” There was LIU CHÊNG, who was put to death for daring to cast an eye upon one of the favourites of the great general Ts‘ao Ts‘ao, virtual founder of the House of Wei. CH’ÊN LIN and YÜAN YÜ complete the tale. [Sidenote: TS’AO TS’AO] To these seven names an eighth and a ninth are added by courtesy: those of TS’AO TS’AO above mentioned, and of his third son, Ts‘ao Chih, the poet. The former played a remarkable part in Chinese history. His father had been adopted as son by the chief eunuch of the palace, and he himself was a wild young man much given to coursing and hawking. He managed, however, to graduate at the age of twenty, and, after distinguishing himself in a campaign against insurgents, raised a volunteer force to purge the country of various powerful chieftains who threatened the integrity of the empire. By degrees the supreme power passed into his hands, and he caused the weak Emperor to raise his daughter to the rank of Empress. He is popularly regarded as the type of a bold bad Minister and of a cunning unscrupulous rebel. His large armies are proverbial, and at one time he is said to have had so many as a million of men under arms. As an instance of the discipline which prevailed in his camp, it is said that he once condemned himself to death for having allowed his horse to shy into a field of grain, in accordance with his own severe regulations against any injury to standing crops. However, in lieu of losing his head, he was persuaded to satisfy his sense of justice by cutting off his hair. The following lines are from a song by him, written in an abrupt metre of four words to the line:--