Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/193

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Away to Time everlasting,

Trackless through the regions of Space f

With the moon he issues from the Ladle}

Speeding upon a favourable gale;

Below, Mount Hua looms dark.

And from it sounds a clear-toned bell.

Vacantly I gaze after his vanished image,

Now passed beyond the bounds of mortality. . . .

Ah, the Yellow Emperor and Yao,

They, peerless, are his models."

vi. REFINEMENT.

M A jade kettle with a purchase of spring? A shower on the thatched hut Wherein sits a gentle scholar. With tall bamboos growing right and left, And white clouds in the newly-clear sky, And birds flitting in the depths of trees. Then pillowed on his lute in the green shade, A waterfall tumbling overhead, Leaves dropping, not a word spoken, The man placid, like a chrysanthemum, Noting down the flower-glory of the season, A book well worthy to be read."

vii. WASH SMELT. "As iron from the mines, As silver from lead, So purify thy heart, Loving the limpid and clean. Like a clear pool in spring, With its wondrous mirrored shapes, So make for the spotless and true, A nd, riding the moonbeam, revert to the Spiritual. Let your gaze be upon the stars of heaven? Like flowing water is our to-day, Our yesterday, the bright moon." *

1 The Great Bear. a Wine which makes man see spring at all seasons.

  • Emblems of purity.

4 Our previous state of existence at the eternal Centre to which the moon belongs.

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