“Our hearts are very near, but our bodies are far apart.  There is no time fixed for our meeting; yet a secret longing can unite souls that are separated by a thousand miles.

“Protect yourself against the cold spring wind, eat well—­look after yourself in all ways and do not worry too much about your worthless handmaid,

TS`UI YING-YING.”

Chang showed this letter to his friends and so the story became known to many who lived at that time.  All who heard it were deeply moved; but Chang, to their disappointment, declared that he meant to break with Ts`ui.  Yuuan Chen1, of Honan, who knew Chang well, asked him why he had made this decision.

Chang answered: 

“I have observed that in Nature whatever has perfect beauty is either itself liable to sudden transformations or else is the cause of them in others.  If Ts`ui were to marry a rich gentleman and become his pet, she would forever be changing, as the clouds change to rain, or as the scaly dragon turns into the horned dragon.  I, for one, could never keep pace with her transformations.

“Of old, Hsin of the Yin dynasty and Yu of the Chou dynasty ruled over kingdoms of many thousand chariots, and their strength was very great.  Yet a single woman brought them to ruin, dissipating their hosts and leading these monarchs to the assassin’s knife.  So that to this day they are a laughing-stock to all the world.  I know that my constancy could not withstand such spells, and that is why I have curbed my passion.”

At these words all who were present sighed deeply.

A few years afterwards Ts`ui married some one else and Chang also found a wife.  Happening once to pass the house where Ts`ui was living, he called on her husband and asked to see her, saying he was her cousin.  The husband sent for her, but she would not come.  Chang’s vexation showed itself in his face.  Some one told Ts`ui of this and she secretly wrote the poem: 

    Since I have grown so lean, my face has lost its beauty. 
    I have tossed and turned so many times that I am too tired to leave
        my bed. 
    It is not that I mind the others seeing
      How ugly I have grown;
    It is you_ who have caused me to lose my beauty,
      Yet it is you I am ashamed should see me!_

Chang went away without meeting her, and a few days afterwards, when he was leaving the town, wrote a poem of final farewell, which said: 

    You cannot say that you are abandoned and deserted;
      For you have found some one to love you. 
    Why do you not convert your broodings over the past
      Into kindness to your present husband?

After that they never heard of one another again.  Many of Chang’s contemporaries praised the skill with which he extricated himself from this entanglement.

[64] THE PITCHER

[A.D. 779-831]