The sky and the stars of course contribute their quota of divinities. Beside the Taoist star-gods of Longevity, Honours and Happiness, there is the Jade Emperor or supreme lord of the universe, Yü wang shang ti, who is represented in mandarin dress holding a _ju-i_ sceptre and closely resembling Lu Hsing, the star-god of Honours. There is, too, the goddess of the Moon with a butterfly ornamenting the front of her robes, and a mirror in her right hand, besides the other denizens of the moon--Liu Han, the moon-hare and the moon-toad. A cassia tree also grows in the moon, and the “cassia of the moon” is a symbol of literary success. The Sun is represented as a disc on which is a three-legged bird; and it is probable that the sun-disc is represented also in the so-called “pearl”[505] which is pursued or grasped by dragons; but this idea of the power of the storm threatening the sun was lost sight of in later art, and “a dragon pursuing a pearl” was considered a sufficient description of the motive. A curious scene depicting a mandarin shooting arrows at a dog in the sky alludes to the dog who devours the sun and so causes the eclipse. The zodiacal animals are named on p. 211 (vol. i), and the four points of the compass are symbolised by the azure dragon for the East, the white tiger for the West, the black tortoise for the North, and the red bird for the South. The romance of two stars is embodied in the story of the Spinning Maiden (_Chih Nü_) and her lover, the Cowherd (_Ch’ien Niu_), who are separated for all the year save on one night when the “magpies fill up the Milky Way and enable the Spinning Damsel to cross over.” Chang Ch’ien, the celebrated minister of Han Wu-ti, was one of the first great travellers of China, and among the legends which grew around his exploits is one which makes him ascend the Milky Way and meet the Spinning Damsel herself. This story arose because he was reputed to have discovered the source of the Yellow River, which had hitherto been supposed to rise in heaven, being in fact a continuation of the Milky Way. Chang Ch’ien is sometimes represented in Chinese art as floating on a log-raft on the Yellow River, and carrying in his hand a shuttle given to him by the Spinning Maiden.[506] The poet Li T’ai-po is also figured in the same kind of craft, but he is distinguished by a book in place of the shuttle.