class of printed leaves--those in which Chang-ch'un did not insert
purchased mentions of his forthcoming ventures or verses recording his
virtues (in return for buying many examples of the printed leaf
containing them)--took frequent occasion of reminding persons that
Chang-ch'un owed the beginning of his prosperity to finding a written
parchment connected with a Mandarin of exalted rank and a low caste
attendant at the Ti-i tea-house among the paper heaps, which it was at
that time his occupation to assort into various departments according
to their quality and commercial value. Such printed leaves freely and
unhesitatingly predicted that the day on which he would publicly lose
face was incomparably nearer than that on which the Imperial army
would receive its back pay, and in a quaint and gravity-removing
manner advised him to protect himself against an obscure but
inevitable poverty by learning the accomplishment of chair-carrying--
an occupation for which his talents and achievements fitted him in a
high degree, they remarked.

In spite of these evilly intentioned remarks, and of illustrations
representing him as being bowstrung for treacherous killing, being
seized in the action of secretly conveying money from passers-by to
himself and other similar annoying references to his private life,
Chang-ch'un did not fail to prosper, and his undertakings succeeded to
such an extent that without inquiry into the detail many persons were
content to describe as "gold-lined" anything to which he affixed his
sign, and to hazard their savings for staking upon the ventures. In
all other departments of life Chang was equally successful; his chief
wife was the daughter of one who stood high in the Emperor's favour;
his repast table was never unsupplied with sea-snails, rats' tongues,
or delicacies of an equally expensive nature, and it was confidently
maintained that there was no official in Canton, not even putting