[94] Beside which lived Hsi Shih, the famous beauty of the fifth century after Christ.
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[95] I fear that the translation of this “Singing-girl’s Lament” falls so considerably below the pathetic original as to give but a poor idea of the real merit of the latter as a lyric gem.
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[96] The Chinese have precisely the same mania as our Browns, Joneses, and Robinsons, for scribbling and carving their names and compositions all over the available parts of any place of public resort. The literature of inn walls alone would fill many ponderous tomes.
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[97] The examination, which lasts nine days, has been going on all this time.
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[98] That is, his own body, into which Ch‘u’s spirit had temporarily passed, his own occupying, meanwhile, the body of his friend.
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[99] That is, for being born again, the sole hope and ambition of a disembodied shade.
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[100] See No. LXXI., [note 48].
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[101] See No. LXI., [note 346].
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[102] His own spirit in Ch‘u’s body had met her in a disembodied state.
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[103] Such is the invariable custom. Large presents are usually made by those who can afford the outlay, and the tutor’s name has ever afterwards an honourable place in the family records.
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