[274] There is no limit as to age in the competitive examinations of China. The San-tzŭ-Ching records the case of a man who graduated at the mature age of eighty-two.
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[275] In 1665, that is between fourteen and fifteen years previous to the completion of the Liao Chai.
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[276] See No. I., [note 36].
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[277] Religion and the drama work hand in hand in China.
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[278] Always the first step in the prosecution of a graduate. In this case, the accused was also an official.
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[279] Of what date, our author does not say, or it would be curious to try and hunt up the official record of this case as it appeared in the government organ of the day. The unfortunate man was in all probability insane.
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[280] A.D. 1675. His full name was Wu San-kuei.
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[281] Such is the literal translation of a term which I presume to be the name of some particular kind of jade, which is ordinarily distinguished from the imitation article by its comparative coldness.
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[282] A.D. 1682; that is, three years after the date of our author’s preface. See [Introduction].
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[283] A curious note here follows in the original, not however from the pen of the great commentator, I Shih-shih:—“In 1696 a severe earthquake occurred at P‘ing-yang, and out of seventeen or eighteen cities destroyed, only one room remained uninjured—a room inhabited by a certain filial son. And thus, when in the crash of a collapsing universe, filial piety is specially marked out for protection, who shall say that God Almighty does not know black from white?”
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