“_Here is wine, let us sing; For man’s life is short, Like the morning dew, Its best days gone by. But though we would rejoice, Sorrows are hard to forget, What will make us forget them? Wine, and only wine._” After Ts‘ao Ts‘ao’s death came the epoch of the Three Kingdoms, the romantic story of which is told in the famous novel to be mentioned later on. Ts‘ao Ts‘ao’s eldest son became the first Emperor of one of these, the Wei Kingdom, and TS’AO CHIH, the poet, occupied an awkward position at court, an object of suspicion and dislike. At ten years of age he already excelled in composition, so much so that his father thought he must be a plagiarist; but he settled the question by producing off-hand poems on any given theme. “If all the talent of the world,” said a contemporary poet, “were represented by ten, Ts‘ao Chih would have eight, I should have one, and the rest of mankind one between them.” There is a story that on one occasion, at the bidding of his elder brother, probably with mischievous intent, he composed an impromptu stanza while walking only seven steps. It has been remembered more for its point than its poetry:-- “_A fine dish of beans had been placed in the pot With a view to a good mess of pottage all hot. The beanstalks, aflame, a fierce heat were begetting, The beans in the pot were all fuming and fretting. Yet the beans and the stalks were not born to be foes; Oh, why should these hurry to finish off those?_” The following extract from a poem of his contains a very well-known maxim, constantly in use at the present day:-- “_The superior man takes precautions, And avoids giving cause for suspicion. He will not pull up his shoes in a melon-field, Nor under a plum-tree straighten his hat. Brothers- and sisters-in-law may not join hands, Elders and youngers may not walk abreast; By toil and humility the handle is grasped; Moderate your brilliancy, and difficulties disappear._” [Sidenote: LIU LING]