Humane treatment of the lower animals is not generally supposed to be a characteristic of the Chinese. They have no Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which may perhaps account for some of their shortcomings in this direction. Han Yü was above all things of a kindly, humane nature, and although the following piece cannot be taken seriously, it affords a useful index to his general feelings:-- “_Oh, spare the busy morning fly, Spare the mosquitos of the night! And if their wicked trade they ply, Let a partition stop their flight._ “_Their span is brief from birth to death; Like you, they bite their little day; And then, with autumn’s earliest breath, Like you, too, they are swept away._” The following lines were written on the way to his place of exile in Kuangtung:-- “_Alas! the early season flies, Behold the remnants of the spring! My boat in landlocked water lies, At dawn I hear the wild birds sing._ “_Then, through clouds lingering on the slope, The rising sun breaks on to me, And thrills me with a fleeting hope,-- A prisoner longing to be free._ “_My flowing tears are long since dried, Though care clings closer than it did. But stop! All care we lay aside When once they close the coffin lid._” [Sidenote: PO CHÜ-I] Another famous poet, worthy to be mentioned even after Han Yü, was PO CHÜ-I (A.D. 772-846). As a child he was most precocious, knowing a considerable number of the written characters at the early age of seven months, after having had each one pointed out only once by his nurse. He graduated at the age of seventeen, and rose to high office in the State, though at one period of his life he was banished to a petty post, which somewhat disgusted him with officialdom. To console himself, he built a retreat at Hsiang-shan, by which name he is sometimes called; and there, together with eight congenial companions, he gave himself up to poetry and speculations upon a future life. To escape recognition and annoyance, all names were dropped, and the party was generally known as the Nine Old Gentlemen of Hsiang-shan. This reaching the ears of the Emperor, he was transferred to be Governor of Chung-chou; and on the accession of Mu Tsung in 821 he was sent as Governor to Hangchow. There he built one of the great embankments of the beautiful Western Lake, still known as Po’s Embankment. He was subsequently Governor of Soochow, and finally rose in 841 to be President of the Board of War. His poems were collected by Imperial command and engraved upon tablets of stone, which were set up in a garden he had made for himself in imitation of his former beloved retreat at Hsiang-shan. He disbelieved in the genuineness of the _Tao-Tê-Ching_, and ridiculed its preposterous claims as follows:-- “_‘Who know, speak not; who speak, know naught,’ Are words from Lao Tzŭ’s lore. What then becomes of Lao Tzŭ’s own ‘Five thousand words and more’?_”