A native of Wu-hsi in Kiangsu, famous for his scholarship, his artistic skill, and his belief in magic. When painting a portrait he would not put in the eyes for several years, declaring that expression was entirely dependent upon a man's pecuniary position. He was also noted for the way in which he ate sugar-cane, beginning at the wrong end and passing gradually, as he expressed it, into Paradise. He is sometimes spoken of as 顧虎頭 Tiger-head Ku, from his position as commander of the "tiger-head" contingent at Hu-t‘ou in Hupeh. He, and Lu T‘an-wei, Chang Sêng-yu, and Wu Shêng, are regarded as the 四聖 Four Masters in art. Author of the 啓曚記.
990
Ku K'uang 顧况 (T. 逋翁). 8th and 9th cent. A.D. A native of (
Chinese characters) Hai-yen in Chehkiang, who distinguished himself as a poet, and finally went into retirement, calling himself (Chinese characters). Upon the death of his son (Chinese characters) Fei-hsiung, he seized a pen and wrote the following verses:—
An old man lays to rest a much-loved son . . . . . .
By day and night his tears of blood will run,
Albeit when threescore years and ten have fled
'Tis not a long farewell that he has said.
At this the gods of the infernal regions were touched, and allowed Fei-hsiung to be born again into the family. The latter, at two years of age, was able to tell how in the world below he had heard the lamentations of his father and how he was permitted to appear once more upon the earth.
991
Ku Li-ch'êng (Chinese characters) (T. (Chinese characters) or (Chinese characters). H. (Chinese characters)).
Born A.D.? 1860. A native of Foochow, who was sent to Scotland to be educated, and after six years' residence graduated as M.A. of Edinburgh in 1877. After a short and uncongenial term of service as a kind of private secretary to Sir T. Wade in Peking, he started in 1882 with Messrs Colquhoun and Wahab on their overland journey
