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Showing posts from May, 2013

Spotted bamboos of the Hsiang River

Long ago, Emperor Yâo had two beautiful daughters, called Ê Hwang and Nü Ying. After the emperor had been on the throne seventy years, he abdicted the throne to Emperor Shun, and gave his two daughters in marriage to Shun. Emperor Shun died on a tour of inspection to the south, and buried in the plain of Ts'ang-wû. When Ê Hwang and Nü Ying heard the news of Shun's death,  they stood on the shores of the Hsiao-hsiang, to the south of Lake Tung-t'ing. Their sorrow was deep as the waters of the Lake that go straight down a thousand miles. Dark clouds blackened the sun. The demon-monkey howled in the mist and ghosts whistled in the rain. The queens said, " Though we speak of it we cannot mend it. High Heaven is secretly afraid to shine on our loyalty. But the thunder crashes and bellows its anger, that while Yao and Shun are here they should also be crowning Yü. When a prince loses his servants, the dragon turns into a minnow. When power goes to slaves, mice change

Kung-î family

Kung-î family was powerful in the state of Lû, Kung-î Hsiû was priminister in the reign of Duke Mû. He liked eating fish, but once he rejected some fishes offered as bribery. The briber asked the reason, he said:"I am the priminister of the state, I don't lack means of getting good fish. If I accept yours, I might get punished and lose my position. Who would send me fish any more? Another famous person of the Kung-î family, was Kung-î Chung-tsu. Though we don't know his real name, Chung-tsu was just a courtsey name, his case of choosing younger brother as successor instead of his grandson in the line of rightful heir has been discussed for thousands of years. In ancient China as in the rest of the civilized world, the rule of succession to position and property was that the first born was the proper heir. If the eldest son died, the succession should be descended to the grandson in the line of rightful heir. Histroy didn't tell us if Chung-tsu's eldest s