There is only the moon, shining through the clouds of a hard, jade-green sky.
The term "jade," in Chinese literature, includes both the jadeites and nephrites. These semi-transparent stones are found in a great variety of colours. There are black jades; pure white jades, described by the Chinese as "mutton fat"; jades with brown and red veins; yellow jades tinged with green; grey jades with white or brown lines running through them; and, most usual of all, green jades, of which there are an infinite number of shades.
These green jades vary from the dark, opaque moss-green, very much like the New Zealand "green-stone," to the jewel jade called by the Chinese fei ts'ui, or "kingfisher feather," which, in perfect examples, is the brilliant green of an emerald. As a result of this range of colouring, the Chinese use the term "jade" to describe the tints seen in Nature. The colours of the sky, the hills, the sea, can all be found in the jades, which are considered by the Chinese as the most desirable of precious stones. In addition to its employment in actual comparison, the word "jade" is very often used in a figurative sense to denote anything especially desirable.
Note 20.
Beneath the quilt of the Fire-Bird, on the bed of the Silver-Crested Love-Pheasant.
The Fire-Bird is the Luan, and the Love-Pheasant the Fêng Huang; both are fully described in the table of mythical animals in the Introduction.
Note 21.
As the tears of your so Unworthy One escape and continue constantly to flow.
The term "Unworthy One" is constantly used by wives and concubines in speaking of themselves to their husbands or to the men they love.
Note 22.