Qi

“ They who accord with Heaven are preserved, and they who rebel against Heaven perish. The duke Jing of Qi said, "Not to be able to command others, and at the same time to refuse to receive their commands, is to cut one's self off from all intercourse with others." His tears flowed forth while he gave his daughter to be married to the prince of Wu. ”

“ The rest of the kingdom is indeed jealously afraid of the strength of Qi; and now, when with a doubled territory you do not put in practice a benevolent government - it is this which sets the arms of the kingdom in in motion. ”

“ Mencius replied, 'Among the scholars of Qi, I must regard Zhong as the thumb among the fingers. But still, where is the self-denying purity he pretends to? To carry out the principles which he holds, one must become an earthworm, for so only can it be done. Now, an earthworm eats the dry mould above, and drinks the yellow spring below. ”

“ I have heard of the cutting off of the fellow Zhou, but I have not heard of the putting a sovereign to death, in his case.'
孟子見齊宣王曰:「為巨室,則必使工師求大木。工師得大木。則王喜,以為能勝其任也。匠人斵而小之,則王怒,以為不勝其任矣。夫人幼而學之,壯而欲行之。王曰『姑舍女所學而從我』,則何如?今有璞玉於此,雖萬鎰,必使玉人彫琢之。至於治國家,則曰『姑舍女所學而從我』,則何以異於教玉人彫琢玉哉?」
Mencius, having an interview with the king Xuan of Qi, said to him, 'If you are going to build a large mansion, you will surely cause the Master of the workmen to look out for large trees, and when he has found such large trees, you will be glad, thinking that they will answer for the intended object. ”

“ When Chia Cheng came to scrutinise who they were, and he recognised Li Kuei, the son of Pao-yü's nurse, he addressed himself to him. "You people," he said, "remain waiting upon him the whole day long at school, but what books has he after all read? Books indeed! why, he has read and filled his brains with a lot of trashy words and nonsensical phrases, and learnt some ingenious way of waywardness. Wait till I have a little leisure, and I'll set to work, first and foremost, and flay your skin off, and then settle accounts with that good-for-nothing!" ”

“ The forces of Chi are weighty but without solidity; the soldiers of Chin are scattered, and fight each of his own accord: the army of Chu is well ordered, but cannot endure: the soldiers of Yen [Pg 86] defend well, but are without dash: the armies of the three Chins are well governed, but cannot be used.
“The nature of Chi is stubborn and the country rich, but prince and officials are proud and luxurious, and neglectful of the common people; government is loose and rewards not impartial; in one camp there are two minds; the front is heavy, but the rear is light. ”

“ But he often told Kitty stories from the Chinese novels and from Chinese history and though he told them with that airy badinage which was natural to him it was good-humoured and even tender. It seemed to her that, perhaps unconsciously, he had adopted the Chinese view that the Europeans were barbarians and their life a folly: in China alone was it so led that a sensible man might discern in it a sort of reality. Here was food for reflection: Kitty had never heard the Chinese spoken of as anything but decadent, dirty and unspeakable. ”

“ Thus ended a strife of nearly twenty years between two kingdoms, and Han Hsin came to be the Prince of his kingdom. Often during the time of kite-flying in China, away in the heavens one sees a kite in the shape of an old-time warrior, and few of the many beautiful and fancy kites to be seen have such an interesting story. The kite has come to be, in Western lands, merely an amusement, but in China, where it was probably invented, it ever carries with the sport the message, “Strength of mind is greater than strength of body.” ”

“ Feng was playing, so we learned when the final move had been played. The man must have had nerves of iron. He was off his guard when the crystal claw arrived, it is true, but the news—of tremendous import, as events showed—that Humphrey’s had good reason to fear the Thu-tseng did not cause even the quiver of an eyelash. There are few things in nature so utterly impassive as the face of the cultured Chinese! ”

“ But you had better keep what I tell you to yourself, at any rate for the present.
“The crystal claw,” he went on, “is the badge or sign of the Thu-tseng, a powerful Manchu secret society. There is nothing illegal about the society; it simply works for the political regeneration of China. Hsi-yuan himself is one of its leading lights—you know of him, of course. The claw is given, so far as outsiders are concerned, only to those who have rendered some signal service to the society. Now, I cannot see how Mrs. Audley, by any conceivable stretch of the imagination, can have helped the Thu-tseng. ”

“ He slept out on the mountain, and early in the morning found his way back to the cave where the two old men were playing chess.
At first they said they could do nothing for him, and told him to go away and not disturb them; but Wang Chih would not go, and they soon found the only way to get rid of him was to give him some really good advice.
"You must go to the White Hare of the Moon, and ask him for a bottle of the elixir of life. If you drink that you will live for ever," said one of them. ”

“ In return for the absolute obedience of Quong Ho and his acceptance of the life of a recluse for three years, he undertook to send him back to China as the most accomplished native mathematician in existence—for he had already gauged the young man’s peculiar genius—with a Master of Arts degree, if possible, from some British University, and thus assure him a distinguished position in that New China whose marvellous future had been the subject of so many of their dreams and discussions. ”

“ Chia Se presently shuffled his feet, while he designedly adjusted his dress and looked at the rays of the sun. "It's time," he observed and walking forthwith, first up to Chia Jui, he explained to him that he had something to attend to and would like to get away a little early; and as Chia Jui did not venture to stop him, he had no alternative but to let him have his way and go.
During this while, Ming Yen had entered the room and promptly seizing Chin Jung in a grip: "What we do, whether proper or improper," he said, "doesn't concern you! It's enough anyway that we don't defile your father! ”

“ Feng. But I could only assume that his solution of the mystery was correct. Mrs. Audley apparently knew next to nothing of her father’s life abroad: certainly she would and could know nothing of his political activities there. But Feng was confident he had somehow been associated with powerful members of the Thu-tseng.
“I will send some cables tomorrow,” he said, as [43] we parted for the night. “I am deeply interested in this affair. China is the land of mysteries, and this is beyond me. The last time I saw the crystal claw was when I was in Tibet twenty years ago. ”

“ Ki-Chan asked us if we had no more than two trunks. “Only two; everything has been brought here; there remains in our house not a rag, not a bit of paper.” “What have you got in your two trunks?” “Here are the keys; open them, empty them, and examine them at your pleasure.” Ki-Chan blushed, and moved back. His Chinese delicacy was touched. “Do these trunks belong to me?” he said, with emotion. “Have I the right to open them? If anything should be missed afterwards, what would you say?” “You need not be afraid; our religion forbids us rashly to judge our neighbour.” “Open your trunks yourselves ”

“ Wherever a Chinaman was, there might be the hand of Li Chang Yen. I remembered the adventure of the Baited Trap. Was the whole thing a ruse on the part of my enemies?
A little reflection convinced me that at any rate a visit to the hospital would do no harm. It was probable that the thing was not so much a plot as what is vulgarly known as a “plant.” The dying Chinaman would make some revelation to me upon which I should act, and which would have the result of leading me into the hands of the Big Four. ”

“ It remains with us to deal with Chinese ideas regarding the soul which was protected by jade, the concentrated form of “soul substance”.
The Chinese believed that a human being had two souls. One was the Kwei, that is the soul which partook of the nature of the element Yin and returned to the earth from which it originally came;69 the other soul was the shen which partook of the element Yang. When the shen is in the living body, it is called Khi or “breath”; after death “it lives forth as a refulgent spirit, styled ming”. The other soul, called Kwei, is known as the pʼoh during life ”

“ At noontide, when his fellow-labourers gave up working, and sat down to rest and eat, Wang Chih took his axe and went up the mountain slope to find a small tree that he might cut down for fuel.
He walked a long way, and at last saw one growing at the mouth of a cave.
"This will be just the thing," he said to himself. But, before striking the first blow, he peeped into the cave to see if it were empty.
To his surprise, two old men, with long, white beards, were sitting inside playing [83] chess, as quietly as mice, with their eyes fixed on the chessboard. ”

“ But we look with no little interest on the Joss above the altar, the Chinese god. His name is Kwan Rung, and I am informed that he was born about two hundred years after the beginning of the Christian era. Such is the person who is worshipped here. That he may not be hungry food is placed before him at times, and also water to drink. It is a poor, weak human god after all, a dying, dead man. How different the Creator of the ends of the earth, Who fainteth not neither is weary! The Chinese have no conception of the true God. ”

“ At the back of the jade-green gauze mosquito-house were faintly visible several persons in red and green habiliments, with gems on their heads, and gold trinkets in their coiffures.
Dr. Wang could not muster the courage to raise his head. With speedy step, he advanced and paid his obeisance. Dowager lady Chia noticed that he wore the official dress of the sixth grade, and she accordingly concluded that he must be an imperial physician. "How are you noble doctor?" she inquired, forcing a smile. "What is the worthy surname of this noble doctor?" she then asked Chia Chen. ”

“ When Kow Li had cleared away the small tea-service, Sên sat, until it was time to change for dinner, almost without moving in his easy-chair—and thought. It’s a Chinese habit—the breath of the Chinese mind. A Chinese must meditate—or die. ”

“ The fourth division of the Shih Chi is devoted to the annals of the reigns of vassal princes, to be read in connexion with the imperial annals of the first division. The final division, which is in many ways the most interesting of all, gives biographical notices of eminent or notorious men and women, from the earliest ages downwards, and enables us to draw conclusions at which otherwise it would have been impossible to arrive. Confucius and Mencius, for instance, stand out as real personages who actually played a part in China’s history ”

“ But T’ien Kên enquired a second time, and the Sage replied, "Resolve your mental energy into abstraction, your physical energy into inaction. Allow yourself to fall in with the natural order of phenomena, without admitting the element of self,—and the empire will be governed."
By virtue of natural laws which lead, without man's interference, to the end desired. Yang Tzŭ Chü went to see Lao Tzŭ, and said, "Suppose a man were ardent and courageous, acquainted with the order and principles of things, and untiring in the pursuit of Tao—would he be accounted a wise ruler?" ”

“ Chia Cheng accordingly unclasped the piece of jade from Pao-yü's neck, and handed it to the two divines. The Buddhist priest held it with reverence in the palm of his hand and heaving a deep sigh, "Since our parting," he cried, "at the foot of the Ch'ing Keng peak, about thirteen years have elapsed. How time flies in the mortal world! Thine earthly destiny has not yet been determined. ”

“ In days of yore, the duke of Ning Kuo and the duke of Jung Kuo were two uterine brothers. The Ning duke was the elder; he had four sons. After the death of the duke of Ning Kuo, his eldest son, Chia Tai-hua, came into the title. He also had two sons; but the eldest, whose name was Hu, died at the age of eight or nine; and the only survivor, the second son, Chia Ching, inherited the title. His whole mind is at this time set upon Taoist doctrines; his sole delight is to burn the pill and refine the dual powers; while every other thought finds no place in his mind. ”

“ In despair the miserable rejected one went and threw himself into the sea. At the moment when he was being choked by the waters a mysterious fish or monster called ao raised him on its back and brought him to the surface. K’uei ascended to Heaven and became arbiter of the destinies of men of letters. His abode was said to be the star K’uei, a name given by the Chinese to the sixteen stars of the constellation or ‘mansion’ of Andromeda and Pisces. The scholars quite soon began to worship K’uei as the God of Literature, and to represent it on a column in the temples. ”

“ Chin succeeded in taking his master’s degree; and three years afterwards, happening to revisit the Flowery Hill, he beheld a Mr. Chi, one of those very gentlemen who had previously been killed by the tiger. In great alarm he was making off, when Chi seized his bridle and would not let him proceed. So he got down from his horse, and inquired what was the matter; to which Chi replied, “I am now the slave of Miao, and have to endure bitter toil for him. He must kill some one else before I can be set free. ”

“ By the time this suggestion had reached Chia Jui's ears, half of his body had become stiff like a log of wood; and as he betook himself away, with lothful step, he turned his head round to cast glances at her. Lady Feng purposely slackened her pace; and when she perceived that he had gone a certain distance, she gave way to reflection. "This is indeed," she thought, "knowing a person, as far as face goes, and not as heart! Can there be another such a beast as he! ”