The Chinese reader's manual: A handbook of biographical, historical, mythological, and general literary reference

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American Presbyterian mission Press, 1874 - China - 440 pages
 

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Page 39 - One writer describes it as having the head of a pheasant, the beak of a swallow, the neck of a tortoise, and the outward semblance of a dragon...
Page 330 - In this work, which serves as a basis for the philosophy of divination and geomancy, and is largely appealed to as containing not alone the elements of all metaphysical knowledge but also a clue to the secrets of nature and of being the...
Page 110 - Laotze' в writings both enabled and encouraged his so-called disciples and adherents to graft upon the leading notions of his text an entirely adventitious code of natural and psychical philosophy, which, on the one hand, expanded into a system of religious belief, a simple travesty of Buddhism, and, on the other, became developed into a school of mysticism, founded apparently upon the early secrets of the professions of healing and divination, from whence it rose to occult researches in the art...
Page 96 - ... typified. In allusion to the lettered functionaries of old, who, without thought of worldly lucre or unworthy intrigue, contented themselves in recreation with their favourite lutes, the abode of the virtuous official is designated the ' Lute Hall,' and the approach to his tribunal as ' the steps leading to the lute.
Page 235 - On repairing to his home, he found that centuries had passed since the time when he had left it for the mountains, and that no vestige of his kinsfolk remained. Retiring to a retreat among the hills, he devoted himself to the rites of Taoism, and finally attained to immortality.
Page 28 - His friends implored him to forego this strange request, pointing out that the birds would mutilate his corpse ; but he replied, " What matters that ? Above are the birds of the air, below are the worms and ants; if you rob one to feed the other, what injustice is there done...
Page 278 - A mussel was sunning itself no the river bank when a bittern came by and pecked at it. The mussel closed its shell and nipped the bird's beak. Hereupon the bittern said, ' If you don't let me go to-day, if you don't let me go to-morrow, there will be a dead mussel.
Page ix - Chaldaeans, the Hebrews, and the Hindoos, a doctrine of the hidden properties and harmonies of number imbues the earliest recorded expression of Chinese belief. So also, it may be remarked, in the teachings of PYTHAGORAS, an abstract theory of Number was expounded as underlying the whole system of Existence, whence the philosophy of the Western world became tinged with conceptions strongly resembling those which XU.
Page 50 - Ho, the crane. Next to the fing (phtenix), this bird is the most celebrated in Chinese legends, in which it is endowed with many mythical attributes. It is reputed as the patriarch of the feathered tribe, and the aerial courser of the immortals. There are said to be four kinds of ho, the black, the yellow, the white, and the blue, of which the black is the longest lived.
Page 12 - The Khan, fired by the hope of obtaining possession of so peerless a beauty, invaded China in irresistible force, and only consented to retire beyond the Wall when the lady was surrendered to him. She accompanied her savage captor, bathed in tears, until the banks of the Amur were reached, when, rather than go beyond the boundary, she plunged into the waters of the stream.

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