Tang

“ With no warning of its approach, a creature, semi-human in form, walked into view from behind the tree trunk. Tang stifled his instinctive urge to reach for his pistol and stood motionless. He had learned long ago, that when playing a strange game, to let the other fellow play first.
The native possessed two limbs upon which he stood, and two others, set where its shoulders should have been, but there his human likeness ceased. Yet there was something about him that more nearly approached the human standard of a man than did the stick-insect which he had observed earlier. ”

“ Winter melted into spring. Flowers bloomed in the courtyard. Street vendors came each morning with great bunches of long-stemmed violets. On starlit evenings Fuh Tang carried his little son out into the courtyard where they sat talking of their happiness and his future.
It was on a late afternoon when fruit hung [46] ripe on the hawthorn trees, and soft autumn breezes swayed the leaves of the moonflower vine that the sturdy baby made his first attempt to walk. Fuh Tang and Kuei Ping, both leaving him to stand in Chang An’s hands, moved away, a double inducement for him to take his first step. ”

“ And Tang was certain the mind picture had been communicated to him by the clober at his side. He had made his first telepathic contact with the planet's denizens!
For a half-hour after he arose Tang was unable to reestablish contact with the little doughball. Then he realized that he was trying too hard.
He sat down and forced himself to relax. His mind gradually calmed and made itself receptive. Food? Hungry? the clober's thoughts reached him.
Tang rose and walked to the door. The mahutes had left a small bundle of shoots at the side of the hut, as they had done every morning for Lutscher. ”

“ Chuang Tzŭ said, "Tigers and wolves have it."
"How so?" asked Tang.
"The natural love between parents and offspring," replied Chuang Tzŭ,—"is not that charity?"
Tang then inquired about perfect charity.
"Perfect charity," said Chuang Tzŭ, "does not admit of love for the individual."
It embraces all men equally. To love one person would imply at least the possibility of hating another. See also p. 167, where Lao Tzŭ refutes the doctrine of universal love. "Without such love," replied Tang, "it appears to me there would be no such thing as affection, and without affection no filial piety. ”

“ He painted on silk, on bamboo slips and on the walls of the Imperial Palace of the Emperor Ming Huang. The paintings of Wu Tao-tzu were three dimensional.
Tang Ling, on porcelain, had solved this three dimensional quality of Wu. His figures lived and breathed and appeared about to speak. No doubt had he that the slim, flowerlike girl he had painted with his own magic brush was a living pulsating being. Her exquisite tender smile was for him only. Her eyes followed him about the room.
He could hardly wait for that glorious moment when he could join her on the vase. ”

“ Fuh Tang still lay in the stupor of drugged sleep, but as she leaned over him she saw in his blue-lined face something of the price that he had paid for her freedom thus far. For the first time she saw the real contrast between him and the handsome gallant man who had loved her enough to break down the walls of custom for her and sacrifice his own career to earn her bread by daily work. ”

“ In humiliation Kuei Ping’s heart was lighter than ever before. She knew that Fuh Tang would not depart without her. His younger brother was dispatched to fill Fuh Tang’s too long neglected orders.
In early autumn they left the protection and the guidance of their families in disgrace. Love for each other, so strong that it broke down old barriers to personal freedom, set them out upon the road of life a unit separate from the complex life of the compound. ”

“ We leave the cairn and the fire, its smoke covering the summit of the pass as with a torn veil, and follow the brook, of which the water will some day reach the warm sea after a thousand experiences. I turn a page and begin a new chapter in my life as an explorer; the desolate Chang-tang remains behind me, and Targo-gangri sinks below the horizon—shall I ever see its majestic peaks again?
We descend rapidly with the wind in our faces. Large 36 blocks of ice fill the valley bottom between walls of black schists and porphyry. ”

“ Tang held fast the Mean, and employed men of talents and virtue without regard to where they came from. King Wen looked on the people as he would on a man who was wounded, and he looked towards the right path as if he could not see it. ”

“ I always had to try to change the status quo, to incite unrest and rebellion among the natives of the occupied worlds, to steal the unstealable, to pit one world against another. Is that the kind of man you're seeing now?"
"No, it isn't," Tang said thoughtfully. "I'd best describe you now as a contented man. If I didn't know better, I'd say you hadn't a care in the world."
"And you'd be right," Lutscher said, leaning forward in his desire to emphasize his sincerity. "You haven't been here long enough to feel it, but this planet does something to you. ”

“ It was at this crisis, when the balance of the nation's destiny hung poised, that Kwo Kam, the only son of the Emperor Tung Kwei, and rightful heir of the dynasty of the glorious Tang, miraculously appeared at the head of the Avenging Pure and being acclaimed their leader with a unanimous shout led them on through a series of overwhelming and irresistible victories. ”

“ Come, my doughty generals. Have you no plan? General Tang?" Tang bowed his head the three times required by law and courtesy. "Sire, with your permission, I have a small scheme that may serve." "Chen hao (Very good) ; spare no expense. Draw on the treasury for whatever you may desire—silk, tailors, fans, or false faces—anything except more soldiers, for soldiers we have not." "Then, please, Your Majesty," said Tang, "may I ask you to sign an order on the treasury for one ounce of pine resin." Then the King thought Tang jesting. ”

“ Even down to the present day, the Chinese are proud to describe themselves as "sons of Han." The house of Tang, A.D. 618-908, is noted above all for the literary style of its prose-writers and the genius of its poets. In South China the people are fond of calling themselves "sons of Tang." The house of Sung, A.D. 970-1127, shows a galaxy of philosophers and scholars, whose expositions and speculations are accepted as the standard of orthodoxy. More acute reasoners it would be difficult to find in any country ”

“ Yi Yin assisted Tang so that he became sovereign over the kingdom. After the demise of Tang, Tai Ding having died before he could be appointed sovereign, Wai Bing reigned two years, and Zhong Ren four. Tai Jia was then turning upside down the statutes of Tang, when Yi Yin placed him in Tong for three years. ”

“ Chair-bearers came within the courtyard to bear her forth upon those journeys.
Leaning back against the wall, Kuei Ping drew a deep breath of air. Now near and now far away the music called. Thither along the road to his former place in the world of other affairs Fuh Tang had returned six days after their marriage. Above her head the wood-rose nodded in the breeze. Men went out and beyond. Women in that far-away land from which Miss Porter came, walked, too, in similar paths of freedom. ”

“ At the time of the Emperor Tai Dsung, of the Tang dynasty, it once happened that a great drought reigned in the land, so that the emperor and all his officials erected altars everywhere in order to plead for rain.
Then the Dragon-King of the Eastern Sea talked with the Dragon of the Milky Way and said: "To-day they are praying for rain on earth below. The Lord of the Heavens has granted the prayer of the King of Tang. To-morrow you must let three inches of rain fall!"
"No, I must let only two inches of rain fall," said the old dragon. ”

“ I handed it to Tang, who went off with it in his possession, and I never saw the intriguer again.
This was no doubt a very stupid thing to have done, as I thereby furnished my enemies with documentary evidence that I had come voluntarily to the Legation. But as a dying man will clutch at anything, so I, in my strait, was easily imposed upon.
Tang had informed me that all my notes had been given up by the servants, so that none of them had reached my friends outside. I then lost all hope, and was persuaded that I was face to face with death. ”

“ Fuh Tang’s only brother, dispatched more than a year ago to fill his place in ignored orders, had fallen in battle under General Tso in a vain attempt to defend the city of Pingyang from the Japanese.
[47] The aged man’s eyes followed hungrily the movements of his sturdy grandchild, while they brought him a chair and tea and offered the courtesies due to age from youth. ”

“ In any matter contrary to the righteousness which they prescribed, or contrary to their principles, he would neither have given nor taken a single straw. Tang sent persons with presents of silk to entreat him to enter his service. With an air of indifference and self-satisfaction he said, "What can I do with those silks with which Tang invites me? ”

“ Luce instead reads both as historic reference, which seems an odd sentence structure to take given the rest of the text.↑ Emperor Tang Xuán Zōng (玄宗) 's Tiānbǎo (天寶) reign lasted from 742–756. Emperor Xuanzong (唐玄宗) (8 September 685—3 May 762) , also commonly known as Emperor Ming of Tang (唐明皇) , personal name Li Longji (李隆基) , known as Wu Longji (武隆基) from 690—705, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 712—756. His reign of 43 years was the longest during the Tang Dynasty. In the early half of his reign he was a diligent and astute ruler. ”

“ I thereupon asked him if there was any hope for my life, to which he replied: "Yes, there is still great hope; but you must do what I tell you."
He advised me to write to the Minister asking for mercy. This I agreed to do, and asked for pen, ink and paper. These Tang told Cole to bring me.
I asked, however, that Chinese ink and paper should be supplied me, as I could not write to the Chinese Minister in English.
To this Tang replied: "Oh, English is best, for the Minister is but a figure-head; everything is in Macartney's hands, and you had better write to him." ”

“ The porcelains of Tang Ling were famous throughout all China. It has been written that he was a porcelain magician, and with good reason. Even the Emperor had honored him and called him Elder Brother. Usually artists executed one phase only in the making of porcelain. One shaped a vase, another fired it. Some were specialists in glazes, others painted butterflies. The painter of moons was not nearly as famous as the painters of clouds or mountains. But Tang Ling did all these things with equal facility. ”

“ He was blamed, however, for over-trusting Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong and An Lushan during his late reign, with Tang's golden age ending in the Anshi Rebellion. This marked the beginning of the Tang dynasty's decline.1 2 We interpret 陀附蠻所陷 as 陀 (fell or lost-out) 附 (to) 蠻 (barbarian) 所 ('s) 陷 ( [via] defeat in battle) . Luce however tacks the first character on to the general's name, probably in error.↑ This place name could mean 'outer' or 'external' 彌蕩, however this feels like an overly modern interpretation. ”

“ To kill a husband and carry off a wife is something an honest man does not do. And since I am only an ordinary man, I prefer to die rather than do as you say."
Tsian Tang rose, apologized and said: "My words were over-hasty. I hope you will not take them ill!" And the King of the Dungting Sea also spoke kindly to him, and censured Tsian Tang because of his rude speech. So there was no more said about marriage.
On the following day Liu I took his leave, and the Queen of the Dungting Sea gave a farewell banquet in his honor. ”

“ It is said that he was really a white bat, who turned into a man. In the first days of the Tang dynasty an ancient with a white beard and a bamboo drum on his back, was seen riding backward on a black ass in the town of Tschang An. He beat the drum and sang, and called himself old Dschang Go. Another legend says that he always had a white mule with him which could cover a thousand miles in a single day. ”

“ PLEADING WITH MY GAOLERS FOR LIFE.
AT twelve o'clock the same night Tang returned to my room and re-opened the subject. I asked him, if he was really a friend of mine, what he could do to help me.
"That is what I came back for," he replied, "and I want to do all I can, and will let you out by-and-by. Meantime," he continued, "I am getting the locksmith to make two duplicate keys, one for your room and one for the front door."
Tang had to take this step, he said, as the keys were kept by the confidential servant of the Minister, who would not part with them. ”

“ He knew by experience that almost invariably an animal, or a human, feared a stranger, and reacted to that fear with either flight or a challenge. Sometimes that fear could be allayed by an early demonstration of animity.
Abruptly the native seemed to lose interest in Tang. He turned and began cutting small branch shoots from one of the surrounding limbs. ”

“ At times Tang Ling took weeks to perfect a single vase and during that time he conversed with no one, except for an occasional word with the old servant who brought him his rice. Though his possessions were considerable, while absorbed in creating he lived as frugally as a peasant. ”