When there is a great peace
Under the gold cup of the sun
Joy reaches its flowering.

In the twentieth year of the period Wan-li, there came, among the
thousands of students who gathered at Peking for the examinations, a
certain Li, whose first name was Chia and his surname Ch'ien-hsi, or
"Purified-a-thousand times." His family were from Shao-hsing fu in
Chekiang; his father was Judge of the province of Kang-su; and Li
himself was the eldest of three brothers. He had studied in the
village school from childhood and, not having yet attained to
literary rank, had come, according to custom, to present himself for
examination at Peking. While in that city, he consorted, before his
springtide, with the young libertines, the "willow twigs" of his
country; and, in order to gain experience, frequented the theatres
and music-halls. Thus he became acquainted with a famous singing girl
called Tu, whose first name was Mei, or "Elegance." As she was the
tenth of her family, she was known at the theatre as Shih-niang, "The
Tenth daughter." A delicate seduction diffused from her: her body was
all grace and perfume. The twin arches of her brows held the black
which is blue of distant mountains, and her eyes were as deep and
bright as autumn lakes. Her face had the glory of the lotus, and her
lips the glory of cherries. By what blunder of the gods had this piece
of flawless jade fallen in the windy dust, among the flowers beneath
the willow? When she was thirteen years old, Shih-niang had already
"broken her claws." Now she was nineteen, and it would not be
possible to enumerate the young Lords and Princes whose hearts she
had besotted, whose thoughts she had set in a turmoil, whose family
treasures she had swallowed without compunction. In the theatres, they
had composed an epigram about her: