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Page 89
The name of the despicable person who here sets forth his immature
story is Kin Yen, and he is a native of Kia-Lu in the Province of
Che-Kiang. Having purchased from a very aged man the position of
Hereditary Instructor in the Art of Drawing Birds and Flowers, he gave
lessons in these accomplishments until he had saved sufficient money
to journey to Peking. Here it was his presumptuous intention to learn
the art of drawing figures in order that he might illustrate printed
leaves of a more distinguished class than those which would accept
what true politeness compels him to call his exceedingly unsymmetrical
pictures of birds and flowers. Accordingly, when the time arrived, he
disposed of his Hereditary Instructorship, having first ascertained in
the interests of his pupils that his successor was a person of refined
morals and great filial piety.
Alas! it is well written, "The road to eminence lies through the cheap
and exceedingly uninviting eating-houses." In spite of this person's
great economy, and of his having begged his way from Kia-Lu to Peking
in the guise of a pilgrim, journeying to burn incense in the sacred
Temple of Truth near that city, when once within the latter place his
taels melted away like the smile of a person of low class when he
discovers that the mandarin's stern words were not intended as a jest.
Moreover, he found that the story-makers of Peking, receiving higher
rewards than those at Kia-Lu, considered themselves bound to introduce
living characters into all their tales, and in consequence the very
ornamental drawings of birds and flowers which he had entwined into a
legend entitled "The Last Fight of the Heaven-sent Tcheng"--a story
which had been entrusted to him for illustration as a test of his
skill--was returned to him with a communication in which the writer
revealed his real meaning by stating contrary facts. It therefore
became necessary that he should become competent in the art of drawing
figures without delay, and with this object he called at the
picture-room of Tieng Lin, a person whose experience was so great that
he could, without discomfort to himself, draw men and women of all
classes, both good and bad. When the person who is setting forth this
narrative revealed to Tieng Lin the utmost amount of money he could
afford to give for instruction in the art of drawing living figures,
Tieng Lin's face became as overcast as the sky immediately before the
Great Rains, for in his ignorance of this incapable person's poverty
he had treated him with equality and courtesy, nor had he kept him
waiting in the mean room on the plea that he was at that moment
closeted with the Sacred Emperor. However, upon receiving an assurance
that a rumour would be spread in which the number of taels should be
multiplied by ten, and that the sum itself should be brought in
advance, Tieng Lin promised to instruct this person in the art of
drawing five characters, which, he said, would be sufficient to
illustrate all stories except those by the most expensive and
highly-rewarded story-tellers--men who have become so proficient that
they not infrequently introduce a score or more of living persons into
their tales without confusion.
After considerable deliberation, this unassuming person selected the
following characters, judging them to be the most useful, and the most
readily applicable to all phases and situations of life:
1. A bad person, wearing a long dark pigtail and smoking an opium
pipe. His arms to be folded, and his clothes new and very expensive.
2. A woman of low class. One who removes dust and useless things from
the rooms of the over-fastidious and of those who have long nails; she
to be carrying her trade-signs.
3. A person from Pe-ling, endowed with qualities which cause the
beholder to be amused. This character to be especially designed to go
with the short sayings which remove gravity.
4. One who, having incurred the displeasure of the sublime Emperor,
has been decapitated in consequence.
5. An ordinary person of no striking or distinguished appearance. One
who can be safely introduced in all places and circumstances without
great fear of detection.
After many months spent in constant practice and in taking
measurements, this unenviable person attained a very high degree of
proficiency, and could draw any of the five characters without
hesitation. With renewed hope, therefore, he again approached those
who sit in easy-chairs, and concealing his identity (for they are
stiff at bending, and when once a picture-maker is classed as "of no
good" he remains so to the end, in spite of change), he succeeded in
getting entrusted with a story by the elegant and refined Kyen Tal.
This writer, as he remembered with distrust, confines his
distinguished efforts entirely to the doings of sailors and of those
connected with the sea, and this tale, indeed, he found upon reading
to be the narrative of how a Hang-Chow junk and its crew, consisting
mostly of aged persons, were beguiled out of their course by an
exceedingly ill-disposed dragon, and wrecked upon an island of naked
barbarians. It was, therefore, with a somewhat heavy stomach that this
person set himself the task of arranging his five characters as so to
illustrate the words of the story.
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