four or five branches joined one to another, just like one storey raised
above another storey. What trouble it must have cost them to rear!"

"Flowers and plants," suggested Shih Hsiang-yuen, "are precisely like the
human race. With sufficient vitality, they grow up in a healthy
condition."

"I can't credit these words," replied Ts'ui Lue, twisting her face round.
"If you maintain that they are like human beings, how is it that I
haven't seen any person, with one head growing over another."

This rejoinder evoked a smile from Hsiang-yuen. "I tell you not to talk,"
she cried, "but you will insist upon talking! How do you expect people
to be able to answer every thing you say! All things, whether in heaven
or on earth come into existence by the co-operation of the dual powers,
the male and female. So all things, whether good or bad, novel or
strange, and all those manifold changes and transformations arise
entirely from the favourable or adverse influence exercised by the male
and female powers. And though some things seldom seen by mankind might
come to life, the principle at work is, after all, the same."

"In the face of these arguments," laughed Ts'ui Lue, "everything, from
old till now, from the very creation itself, embodies a certain
proportion of the Yin and Yang principles."

"You stupid thing!" exclaimed Hsiang-yuen smiling, "the more you talk,
the more stuff and nonsense falls from your lips! What about everything
embodying a certain proportion of the principles Yin and Yang! Besides,
the two words Yin and Yang are really one word; for when the Yang
principle is exhausted, it becomes the Yin; and when the Yin is