FONG WAN - Library

Heron will come in later days and enjoy a happy life together.
Under the shade of the willow in a deep and quiet place, sweet cinnamon
flowers emit fragrance.
V. CHILDREN
Because a cinnamon tree met rain in the flower season, two peaches
were left unripened, half green and half yellow.
Nourished and cultivated, thanks be offered for great potential and
enduring power.
Now happy smiles come full of joy. Plum flowers later become
more and more fragrant.
VI. RETIREMENT
In old age, like the Water Rail, his later life is all destined and
cannot be changed.
Whenever the water is blue and the mountains are green, he seeks
his old friends.
With a lonely monkey and a crane, isolated and aloof, he enjoys life
listening to the songs of the fisherman.
Note: These six stanzas come under the heading "A GOOD
HORSE DRAWS A WAGON LOADED WITH SALT."
Note: This poem is full of figures of speech. The names of plants,
fruits and animals are used not literally, but figuratively with symbolic
meanings. Although in some places, the thought appears to be dis-
connected, if one studies it from a literary standpoint and searches out
the hidden meanings, it is both connected and complete. For instance,
under the head V. Children, the first line speaks of the Cinnamon tree,
and in the second line peaches are mentioned, while in the fourth line,
plum flowers are spoken of. The cinnamon branch is the Mother.
Cinnamon like the laurel in the Occident refers to a woman of high
virtue, honor and chastity. The peach in Chinese mythology
garded as a fruit which gives one everlasting
is re-
life. The reference here
is to the two children, which though left motherless while young will
nevertheless perpetuate the family. The plum is the flower with un-
usual fragrance. It usually blooms in early spring before the snow
and frost are gone. The meaning here is that the half orphans, be-
178