Image 47

[松]柏獨存本性
棑梨盡屬公門
said of a teacher.
This was hung
on lanterns
at [?] when
giving [?] to
new [?].

Your talents like the pine & fir, always
retain their original characteristics.
The exceptional & talented (peach & plum) students
are all your disciples Pupils called [?] and
plums - unripe fruit
receiving [?] from teacher.

竹月[松]風 Emblem of beauty & piety.
The moon shining thru the bamboo and the wind
soughing thru the pines.
This is also written [松]風水月, which
comes from an ancient couplet as follows.
松風水月未足比其清華
仙露明珠詎能方其郎潤

千年老樹為衣架
萬里長江作浴盆
This is a perfect couplet
since noun stands opposite
noun, verb opposite verb,
adjec. against adjec. and
the tones are in perfect
juxtaposition.

Once during the triennial examination at Nanking
one of the candidates met a man near the Yangtze
river in the act of undressing for a bath and hanging
his clothes on the dried up twigs of an old tree near
the rivers water's edge. Being accustomed to put all his
thots into smooth sentences, our friend mumbled
the words 千年老樹衣架 but then got stuck.
In vain he cudgelled his brain to get a second line
matching the first; altho he worried day and night no
suitable idea would occur to him. Finally he lost
his sleep and soon also what reason had been
left him. Anyhow he came to the conclusion that
such a life was not worth living so he put an end to it
by jumping into the river ..... People who passed the
place where the poor man had drowned himself constantly
heard a voice from the water repeating these words
千年老樹為衣架. Evidently the poor ghost could find
no rest till his line was capped with a parallel. The case
was repeated to the Chief Examiner (Hsueh Tai) who lived
up to his great reputation and finished the couplet with the
second line thus 萬里長江作浴盆. From that
moment the poor spirit was at rest - M. H. Ruck in the China
Bookman Sept. 1919