"Cloudy the sky and dark--the thunders roll;
Such outward signs well mark my troubled soul.
I wake, and sleep no more comes to my rest,
His cause I sad deplore, in anguished breast."
Second marriages, though often made are not highly regarded in China. Naturally love is less likely to spring up as in the earlier affiliation. The yengo, a species of wild goose is, among the Chinese, the emblem of love between the sexes. This bird especially stands for strong and undying attachment. For it is said that when once its mate is dead, it never pairs again. For this reason an image of it is worshipped by the newly married couples of China. There is a popular saying among the Chinese that a second husband to a second wife are husband and wife so long as the poor supply holds out. When this fails the partners fly apart, and self is the care of each. While it would be entirely unjust not to recognize the presence of genuine love on the part of many a husband, yet a wife may be handled severely by her spouse if for any reason he may think her deserving of such treatment. This is more true of concubines, whose lot is indeed a hard one. Whenever there is in the household more than one wife, jealousy, bickering, strife, and plotting are almost certain. The Shi King sets these forth in a little poem on the jealousy of a wife:
"When the upper robe is green,
With a yellow lining seen,
There we have a certain token
Right is wronged and order broken."
The Chinese have a saying that it is impossible to be more jealous than a woman; and in the word for "jealous" there is an intended suggestion of another word of the same sound, but of different intonation, meaning "poisonous;" which play upon the word reminds one of the remark of the Hebrew sage that "jealousy is cruel as the grave."