CHHIE 1 Fourish, the home of pleasure and luxury where you can settle dow a in comfort The Stone was overjoy May I trouble you to enlighten me, "it said, as to what wonderful merits you will bestow on me? And where do you mean bo take me?" Dont ask. The monk smiled. "You ll fnd out all ood time With that he tucked the stone into his sleeve and hurried off with the taoist. But where they weat o one knows After no one knows how many generations or aeons,a Taoist known as Reverend Void, Marching for the Way anc immortality, ame to Grcat Waste Mountain, Baseless Cliff and the foot of Blue Ridge Peak. His cye fell on the inscrip- tion on a large stone which was still discernible and he read it through. It was an account of the Stoae's rejection for re pairing heaven, its transformation and conveyance to the world of men by the Buddhist of In fnite Space and the Taoist of Boundless Time, and the joys and sorrows, partings and en- counters, warm and cold treatment from others it had e perienced there. On its back was a Buddhist verse Unfit to mend the azure sky I pAsSed some years on earth bo no avail; My life in both worlds is recorded here whoa can I tk to pu on this romantic tale? There followed the name of the regton where the Stone fell, the place of its incarnation, and the story of its adventures iachding trivial Eamily affairs and light verses written to amuse idle hours. The dynasty, year and couatry's name were, how. obliterate The Reverend Void said to the Stone:"Brother Stone, you sccm to think that your tale recorded here is interesting enough co merit publication. In my vicw, in the first place, there is no way of finding out the dynAsty and the year; in the second there is nothing here about worthy and loyal ministers aa how they regulated the government and public morality.There
A DREAM CF ED MANLIONS are merely some girls remarkable only for their passion of folly, or else for their small gifts and trifling virtues which annot even compare with those of such talented ladies as Pan Chao or Tsai Yen. Even if I wete to transcribe it, it would hardly arouse much interest How can you be so dense, nastec?"protested the Stone with a smile. If there's no way of fading out the date, you can easily ascribe this tale to some time in the Han or Tang Dyoasty. But since all novels do that, I think my way of dispensing with this convention and just dealing with my own adventures and feelings is more original. Why insist on a certain dynasty or definite date? Besides, most common pea ple of the market-place much prefer tight literature to improv- ing books. The trouble is that so many romances contain slanderous anecdotes about sovereigns and ministers or cast aspersions upon other men's wives and daughters so that they are packed with sex and violence. Even worse are those writers of the brcezc-and moonlight school, who corrupt the young with pornography and filth. As for books of the beauty and-talented-scholar type, a thousand are written to a single pattern and none escapes bordering on indecency. They are filled with allusions to handsome, talented young men and beautiful, refined girls in history; but iu order to insert a couple of his own love poems, the author invents stereotyped heroes nd heroines with tfe inevitable low character to make trouble between them like a clown in a play and makes even the slave girls talk pedantic nonsense, So al these novels are full of contradictions and absurdly unnatural Much better are the girls i have known myself during my. ouog day. I wouldn't. presume to rank them as superior to all the characters of earlier works, yet their stories may serve o dispel boredom and care while the few doggerels I have nserted may raise a laugh and add zest to wine, As for the scenes of sad partings and happy meetings, prosperity and i Tro Adic io be Han Dynasty noted for ther scholarship
CHAPE 1 decline, these are all true to fact and nox altered in the slightest to cause a sensation of depart from the truth At preseat the daily concern af the poor is food and cloth- ng, while the rich are never satisfied. All their leisure is taken up with amorous adventures, material acquisition or trouble-making, What time do they have to read political and moral treatises? I neither want people to marvel at this story of mine, nof do I insist that they should read it for pleasure I Dnly hope they may find distraction here when they are sated witb food and wine or searchiog for some escape from worldly cares. By glancing over it in place of other vain pursuits, they may save their energies and prolong their Lives, sparing them- selves the harm of quarres god argaocots, or the troubie of chasing after what is illusory Besides, this story ofcr readers something aew, unlike chose hackneyed and stale hodge-podges of sudden'partings and encounters which teem with talented scholars and lovely girls- Tao Tzu-chien, Cho Wenchun, Huag-uiang, HsiAo-yu and the Hike. What do you say, master? The Reverend Void thoug ht it ove, then carefully re-read T加 s Tale of the Stolη. He found in it both condemnation of treachery and criticism of flattery and evil, but it was clearly not written to pass censure on the timea. Moreover it surpass d other books in itt voluminous account of benevolent princes, good ministers, kind fathers and Glial Bona, and all ctaining to proper humaan relation, H well as logies ofⅵ bough the main theme was love, it wa simply a true record of events, superior to thoae"sham meretricious work devoted to licentious assignations and dis- solute escapades. Since it did not touch at all on current event be copied it out from beginning to end and to ok it away to find 盘 publisher 1 THD TRdiea (ign), Tmo Tua's younger Non, emitted Prince of Chen, a doted PoRt of We of the Taree Kingdoo Period; Cho Weo-chbun, the widow who tried the scholr Spuma Hsimns-iu in the second century Rc;H-gqir如m^ld weca in the Yuan dam Thr Wcm和;HHo八 the heroine of;了 R ku sce
NAM∝F: MANSKONS Since all manifestations are born of nothingness and in turn give rie to pansion, by describing pansion for what is manifest we comprehend nothingness. So the Taoist changed his name to the Passionate Monk and changed the title of the book from Tbe Tale of tbe Stom to the record of tbe Passionate Monk. Kung Mei-bsi stern lu suggested the titie Precious Tsao Hsuch-chin in his Maurning-the Red Studio pored over the book for ten years and rG-wrote it five times. he divided it into chapters, furnished headings for each, and renamed it The Twelve Beauties of Cbinling. He alno inscribed on it this verse Pages full of fantHttc talk Penned with bitter tears All men call the author mad None his mage hean Now that the origin of the story is clear, let us see what w ecorded on the Stone. g ago the earth dipped de the and in that southeast part was a city named Kusu, 2 and the quarter around ChanB-men Gate of Kusu was one of the most fashionable centres of wealth and nobility in the world of men Outside this Chang- me Gate was a certain Ten-li Strect, off which ran the lane of Humanity and Parity; and in this lane stood an old temple, which being built in suchg arrow space was known fzom is hepe w Gound Temple. Beside this term ie lived a gentleman named Chen Fei, whose courtesy name was Shih-Tin. His wife, Aee Feng, was a worthy virtuous woman with a strong, sense of propriety and right, Although neither very rich nor noble, their family was highly regarde in that locality. Chea Shih-yin had a quiet disposition. Instead of hankering after wealth or rank, he was quite happy tending Bowers, a1pping wine of wotng poem -spending his time very much like an immortaL One thing alone was Prowtnt-dey Shantung 2preseat-day ood
lacking: be was now over ffty but had no son, only a three- year-old daughter armed Ying-licn One long hot suramet day as Shih-yin was sitting idly in his study, the book slipped from his hand and, leaning his head on the desk, he fell asleep. In dream he travelled to an unknown place, where he sud denly noticed a monk and a Taoist approaching, talking to- gether. He heard the Taoist ask: where do you mean to take that stupid object? Don't worry, replied the monk. "A love drama is about o be enacted, but not all its actors have yet been incarnated Tm going to slip this sily thing in among them to give it the expenese it want&. So another batch of amorous sinners are bent on making trouble by reincarnation, commented the Taoist. "Where will this drama take place? It's an amusing story. The monk smiled You've never eard anything like it. In the west, on the bank of the Sacred River, beside the Stone of Three Incarnation there grew a Vermilion Pearl Plant which was watered every day with sweet dew by the attendant Shen Ying in the palace of Red jade As the months and years went by and the Vermilion Pearl Plant imbibed the essences of heaven and earth and the ourish- went of rain and dew, it cast off its plant nature and took kuman form, albeit only that of a girL All day long she roamed beyond the Sphere of Parting Sorrow, staying her hunger with tbe trait Secret Love and quenching her thirst at the Sea of Brimming Grief. But her heart was heavy because she had not repaid the care lavished on her Just then, as it happened, shen Ying was seized with longing to assume human form and visit the world of men taking advantage of the present enlightened and peaceful reign. He made his request to the Goddess of Disenchantment, who agw that this was a chance for Vermilion Pearl to repay her debt of gratitude. He gave me sweet dew, 'said Vermilion Pearl, "bat I've no water to repay his kindness. If he's going down to the