[One of the well-known poets of the T‘ang dynasty. As an official, he shared the fate of Liu Tsung-yüan, being banished to a distant post in consequence of political intrigue.]
HILLS are not famous for height alone:’tis the Genius Loci that invests them with their charm. Lakes are not famous for mere depth:’tis the residing Dragon that imparts to them a spell not their own. And so, too, my hut may be mean; but the fragrance of Virtue is diffused around.
The green lichen creeps up the steps: emerald leaflets peep beneath the bamboo blind. Within, the laugh of cultured wit, where no gross soul intrudes; the notes of the light lute, the words of the Diamond Book,[1] marred by no scraping fiddle, no scrannel pipe, no hateful archives of official life.
K‘ung-ming had his cottage in the south; Yang Hsiung his cabin in the west. And the Master said, “What foulness can there be where virtue is?”
↑A famous Buddhist sûtra, of which there is a handy if not perfect English translation by William Gemmell.
