cle I will pass my days, cheering my idle
hours with lute and book. My husbandmen will tell me when spring-time
is nigh, and when there will be work in the furrowed fields. Thither I
shall repair by cart or by boat, through the deep gorge, over the dizzy
cliff, trees bursting merrily into leaf, the streamlet swelling from its
tiny source. Glad is this renewal of life in due season: but for me, I
rejoice that my journey is over. Ah, how short a time it is that we are
here! Why, then, not set our hearts at rest, ceasing to trouble whether
we remain or go? What boots it to wear out the soul with anxious
thoughts? I want not wealth: I want not power: heaven is beyond my
hopes. Then let me stroll through the bright hours, as they pass, in my
garden among my flowers; or I will mount the hill and sing my song, or
weave my verse beside the limpid brook. Thus will I work out my allotted
span, content with the appointments of Fate, my spirit free from care."

Besides contributing a large amount of beautiful poetry, this author
provided his own funeral oration, the earliest which has come down to
us, written just before his death in A.D. 427. Funeral orations are not
only pronounced by some friend at the grave, but are further solemnly
consumed by fire, in the belief that they will thus reach the world of
spirits, and be a joy and an honour to the deceased, in the same sense
that paper houses, horses, sedan-chairs, and similar articles, are burnt
for the use of the dead.

CHAPTER X--MINGS AND CH'INGS, 1368-1911

The first half of the fourteenth century, which witnessed the gradual
decline of Mongol influence and power, was further marked by the birth
of a humble individual destined to achieve a new departure in the
history of the empire. At the age of seventeen, Chu Yuan-chang lost both
his parents and an elder brother. It was a year of famine, and they died
from want of food. He had no money to buy coffins, and was forced to
bury them in straw. He then, as a last resource, decided to enter the
Buddhist priesthood, and accordingly enrolled himself as a novice; but
together with the other novices, he was soon dismissed, the priests
being unable to provide even for their own wants. After this he wandered
about, and finally joined a party of rebels commanded by one of his own
uncles. Rapidly rising to the highest military rank, he gradually found
himself at the head of a huge army, and by 1368 was master of so many
provinces th