Frank Owen

“ It was the thunder of dawn, the crashing beauty of the sun. Slowly, majestically it loomed into view. Its brilliance was blinding, dazzling. It burned the eyes of Hwei-Ti yet he could not turn them away. One by one the star-lanterns flickered out. His body commenced to tremble. It was the most exalted moment of his life. It was like in truth a journey to the sun. It was a beauty too intense for his poor mind to absorb.
The roar of the waves upon the coral beach intensified. Now the whole city was golden, tipped with rose and orange. ”

“ He was aware of the lure of exotic, subtle perfumes and with this in mind he had made his garden. All the sweet-breathed flowers grew there beneath grim gingko trees and tranquil willows. A tiny stream tinkled merrily through the center of the garden, laughing and gurgling over the stones that lay in its path. And above the stream, a charming bridge loomed up like a crescent moon. The moon was a favorite subject in the carvings of the Jade of Woo Fung for the moon reminded him of Shun Kao. Her thin eyebrows were like the new moon's crescent, rising in the east when the month is young. ”

“ It was like a city in the deep hush of the morning before the birds had awakened or the flowers had unfolded to the dawn. Their footbeats made no sound as they passed along and it was well for on the fragrant air was the suggestion of sweet singing, as though some lovely lady were crooning love melodies to the moon. Now the blue trees commenced to stir. They exhaled a sweet fragrance, fragrance of pine and fir, of myrrh and sandalwood. Onward they walked. In the houses the lamps still burned. They glowed gorgeously through the blue maze.
Hwei-Ti sighed. Vision had been granted him at last. ”

“ For hours after leaving the room Ping Yung would wander about as though in a dream. It was hard for him to shake off its elusive fascination.
So passed days and nights of witchery more gorgeous than any of the poems of Lao Tzu. Existence had taken on a cast of perfection. There was nothing to break the magic contentment which lay spread over the little house like a coverlet until one night Ping Yung disappeared. He vanished like the night wind that sighs through the willows. With him vanished the silken carpet, the carpet into which Shun Hua had woven all the love of her soft body. ”

“ Greater than Kutani-ware is the porcelain of Mei-Mei and greater than the love of any other is my love for you. It is like an endless lyric poem, or a brook that flows on forever through the ages. When the sun ceases to rise yellow over China, then only will fade my devotion."
Mei-Mei smiled. She sang softly to herself as she worked at her art. She was decorating a vase with ivory-white and mirror-black. Close beside her was one of great beauty in celadon.
"Who first brings to me the secret of the pale pink color that I crave," she murmured, "to him will I surrender and to none other. ”

“ The loveliest singer in the flower kingdom is the rose. Its music is reflected in its fragrance. The most passionate is the orchid, though blue-poppies, too, are extreme in their desires. Lilies are sad. They are tender flowers who sacrifice themselves for the happiness of others."
That night Ras Orla remained in the house of Yuan Shi Kai. His host did not wish him to leave, nor was he able to drag himself away. The even balance of his life had been ruined. Memory of the beauty and grace of the slender Liane would forever intrude itself upon his consciousness. ”

“ Then again came Woo Ling-foh.
"I am dying," murmured Hwei-Ti, "and before I finally expire I wish once more to visit the wondrous Blue City."
"I wonder," mused Woo Ling-foh. "I wonder whether death is really death or is it life? Is it the birth of the soul, for surely when it is set free from the body, to wander untrammeled through the universe, it cannot be death. However vain speculations interest only those who like to spend their hour in such pursuits." ”

“ Here I will show you sweet jasmine, oleanders, wistaria, chrysanthemums and lotuses of a beauty so rare that you cannot credit their existence. The greatest thing in all the world is flower-life, greater than the life of birds or beasts or men for flowers have hearts and souls and the power to love. They speak and converse with one another. Their modes of speech are sweet perfumes. Fragrance is the highest form of expression."
Yuan Shi Kai paused and gazed languidly about him at the beauty which his splendid mind had caused to materialize. ”

“ The future had taken on a rosy hue, somewhat akin to that pale pink color of Chinese porcelain for which Mei-Mei yearned. Until the moon rose that night he remained in his garden, until the soft flush of sunset had blended into the purpling folds of night. The scent of lotuses sweetened, the breeze intensified, the stars bloomed out like wondrous lanterns hanging in the sky. The world was suffused in a riot of beauty. Tsang Kee Foo rose to his feet. ”

“ It was a superb existence, living in the garden-swamp among the flowers, sleeping in the treetops beneath the moon or on the soft loam under the swaying willows. Every flower in the woodland was his friend and all the tiny animals that lived there never fled at his approach. They knew and loved him. They were all brothers. Life was happiness, song, ecstasy. What mattered that the little man was a monstrosity, a tiny dwarf who resembled a frog with great flat feet and bulbous eyes? For the flowers loved him. Their sight is very keen. ”

“ A soft breeze sighed lazily through the willows laden with perfumes of pungent fragrance.
Upon the high wall, little Lee Cheng perched and crooned to the moon. He sang tiny verses of his own inventing, odd little fragments that gave him pleasure and pleasure was all that he desired.
Lee Cheng was very small and very young. Nobody knew his age nor anything about him. He lingered in the gorgeous garden of Woo Fung, the renowned philosopher who had discovered him wandering listlessly in the narrow alleys of Canton and taken him to his lovely garden near the Pearl River. ”

“ It was like being in another world, living in a cloud-land of drifting shadows, where every breath was an effort and prolonged exertion an almost physical impossibility. He felt like an empty box, strained to the breaking point by external things, in danger of collapsing at any moment. At night as he gazed toward the stars, he almost imagined that he could extend his hand and pick them out of the sky much as one might pick blue-white flowers in a fragrant garden. The sky was so intensely clear, it was breath-taking. ”

“ The fragrance of love spread about them like a mist of azure, binding them together in intangible nets of loveliness. It made a genius of the Jade-carver poet, Woo Fung. From that moment onward his verses held a finer lilt, a greater breadth of fancy for they were imbued with the sweet dreams of the Lady Shim Kao. After all love alone is the supreme emotion. No greater thing exists in all the world, greater than gold, more gorgeous than diamonds, more subtle than poppy fragrance and lighter than webs of gossamer. ”

“ The swamp was teeming with plant, insect and bird life. Bees droned in the noon-day heat. Frogs basked in the sun. The green of their bodies was no more brilliant than the coat of the little man. The winding stretches of forest were amazingly cool. The moisture of the swamp saturated everything. Only a bit of light penetrated the forest depths where the verdure was thickest. At night the Frog-man slept on a bed of moss and soft loam, more restful than feathers. But when there was a moon he slept in the treetops on a natural couch in the high branches which he had discovered. ”

“ I forsook human life for floral, and in my renouncing I gained much. In my garden there grew a single fragile flower, orchid-like in glory, but of a species quite different to any I had ever chanced upon before. ”

“ She helped him to his feet and hand in hand they walked off toward the moon. Pu Chiang and his companions gazed upon them entranced. They marveled that they had ever thought the little Frog-man ugly. On that clear night on the hilltop they saw the real man which the gargoyle shell of his body had always hidden. For one brief interlude their sight was as keen as that of flowers. He was straight and handsome, like a young tree, and his beauty matched hers in perfectness. Like beaten mice Pu Chiang and his friends crept down from the hilltop. ”

“ When they went into their huts did they just pass into blackness like candles blown out? Did they have any home life at all? He doubted it. Were their affections, hopes, desires, loves, all blunted? Did they ever read? It was like being in a dead city. No one approached him. No one talked to him. He seldom heard a human voice for the voices of the people were usually drowned by the frightful screeching of the wind through the mountain passes. ”

“ Love is a poem but poems can be repeated to many people. My love is a color, pale pink like the blush of the morning, pink like the cheek of a happy woman, pink like the sky when day is dying. Your reward will be great if you win me; mine must be great by proportion."
Tsang Kee Foo returned to his house. He locked himself in his workroom for days seeking the secret of that wondrous color. His enthusiasm was great but no greater than that of Lu Chau even though Lu Chau was not so adept at concentration. While pining for the wondrous Mei-Mei he was not blind to the charms of other women. ”

“ Money was a rather questionable commodity. Although illiterate and dull they were able to appreciate how fundamentally useless gold is after all.
Each day he roamed for hours about the wind swept mountain passes. He climbed to lofty pinnacles almost as sharp as needles. Sometimes he rambled over a table of rock so vast that the greatest giants of legend might have sat down comfortably around it without bumping elbows. Not infrequently he even ventured to walk about the native haunts of the City, where sod-thatched huts were mute testimony of the poverty of the people. ”

“ A sound so beautiful could not be buried in his subconsciousness, for never in his life had he heard music of such haunting beauty. The subconscious mind contains only impressions which have passed at some time or other through one's consciousness. At that moment he became almost as mad as Hi Ling. He knew that he had heard the voice of 'Dawn-Girl' and he did not wonder that Hi Ling had renounced all else in the world for love of her. ”

“ Together they groped their way through multitudinous rooms, silent, weird vast through which scarcely even the faintest suggestion of daylight penetrated.
"I keep my house forever dark and shadowy," explained Hi Ling, "in order that it may always be in harmony with life."
"You think, then," said Steppling, "that life is clothed in shadows."
"I do indeed," was the quick response. "The shadows of earth quite outweigh the pleasures. Over almost everyone there is a shadow constantly hanging." ”

“ In time I grew to call the flower, 'Dawn-Girl.' I idolized it. No lover of romance was more enraptured by his dear one than I. That garden became for me a sacred place. Great peace stole into my heart. The miracle of love had been performed anew. Like night and day it goes on endlessly. When love dies out on earth then will the sun grow cold.
"I was supremely happy, but my happiness was not to last. Into my life there came a shadow as come it does into the life of every man. 'The Wind that Tramps the World' chanced to blow through the garden. ”

“ They are not perfect, but they are adequate. Such as they are, I offer them to you."
Together they strolled out into the garden.
The air struck their faces delightfully cool. The sun was a yellow maze. It poured down in golden splendor on the lilacs and peonies, on the pink oleanders and lotuses that sweetened the air. About the walks were stately trees, Chinese ash and scented pine. The air was as fragrant as the spice-laden air of Cambodia. ”

“ It was like being out in green pastures on a night in summer, a night heavy with dew and the droning of countless crickets.
"This," murmured Yuan Shi Kai, "is the floor of flowers, perhaps the loveliest in the house. Here are countless magnificent blossoms that grow without sunlight. Scientists are wrong who state that flowers get their color and perfume from the sun, rather it is the sun that derives its glory from the flowers. It sucks up beauty even as clouds suck up moisture from the ground. ”

“ One morning Shun Hua crept away from his house as he slept. She had followed the silken rug into which her love had been woven. She had followed Ping Yung. For days Lao Tzu sought for her, but in vain. Shun Hua was gone, never to return. When the grain is swept away what need has man for the husks? Something within the mind of Lao Tzu snapped. He ceased to talk much. For hours each day he sat before the door of his house. He wrote no poetry. He did nothing. It was then that rumors commenced to circulate about him. He was a philosopher. He communed with spirits. ”

“ Summer dreams last all through winter.
Dreams ne'er die; they live forever."
As Lee Cheng sang, Woo Fung stood by the window and listened. Never before had he known such peace as at that moment. And as he listened to the voice of the little singer, he realized that his dream had come back once more to his garden. Hope rose within his breast. He sat down at his bench and commenced to carve a trinket of Jade and as he carved it seemed as though strange lights commenced to flicker throughout the bit of yellow Jade before him. ”

“ They caused less of a ripple in the stream of humanity that is China than a stone thrown into a stagnant pond.
Lao Tzu was saddened by the reception which his greatest work received but his sadness was somewhat mitigated by the beautiful rug which was now completed at last No finer rug had ever been seen in China. The sheen of the silk, the poignance of the colors made it seem as though the great rug was a thing alive, as though it could feel and breathe. And perhaps it could for it contained all the rare love which had once lain hidden in the beautiful body of Shun Hua. ”

“ By his chaotic manner Hwei-Ti sensed that they were fleeing from some terrible horror. Yet how could horror stalk in the lovely garden of that beautiful girl?
It was sacrilege to credit such a doubt. And if danger existed were they not cowards to flee from it, sacrificing her to an unknown fate?
At last they arrived at the mountain-top from which they had walked off onto the Moon Road. Woo Ling-foh fell panting to the ground. His lean, gaunt face was colorless. He closed his eyes and moaned and moaned. He had used up all his strength in an effort to escape from the Blue City. ”

“ In fact they have even witnessed the heart-beat of a flower. Bees are attracted to blue flowers and would never approach red roses, for they are color-blind where red is concerned, were it not for the exotic perfume breathed forth by the flower which acts on the bee like a drug, like a web that draws him to it against his will. Science is only in its infancy. It cannot be great until it recognizes and admits the spiritual in nature. ”

“ Usually a man lives in a house but in this case the house lives in me. I have given it personality. I have given it life. It has been builded into the ground and it has taken root. The house of Yuan Shi Kai shall go on through the ages endlessly like an old banyan tree or a gnarled, knotted oak whose fibre is stronger than bars of iron."
He led the way out into the great hall and Ras Orla followed him. ”

“ His companions listened to his ravings, mused over them as they sipped their tea.
"I have solved the mystery of the continued absence of Fu Hsi," he said slowly. "Fu Hsi who built the great house in the swamp-garden. He has been done to death by the weird Frog-man who perhaps has feasted on his body. One of the greatest men in all Canton, to be blotted out like this."
Now Pu Chiang had never seen Fu Hsi, but he inferred that he had. It gave piquancy to his fancies. It is a trait of mankind to condemn that which cannot be understood. So his companions drank their tea and plotted. ”

“ Lu Chau was surprised. He arched his eyebrows. "You speak in a manner befitting a great artist," he commented, "and I will accept your kind offer. It would indeed be a crime to refuse a suggestion coming from a heart so overflowing with bounty. Let me then be less than the least coolie in your household. If I offend by being in your shop too often have me cast from your door."
Tsang Kee Foo smiled. He blinked his eyes as though the light were strong, the light, perhaps, of his own benevolence.
"And now," he said, "I will take you to the rear of my garden to inspect my furnaces. ”

“ As Ras Orla sank onto a divan, he breathed softly of the oddly perfumed air.
"The breath of the flowers even penetrates unto here," he mused.
"That is not true," replied Yuan Shi Kai slowly. "The fragrance that arrests your attention is the fragrance of jewels. Do not smile at the term for I assure you the ancients were aware that jewels exhale a fragrance as surely as flowers though in a far milder form. For centuries certain jewels have been described for certain ailments. Was there not a famous Egyptian who caused pearls to be dissolved in the wine whereof she drank? ”