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CHINESE MUSIC. 43 There are m an · r 3 verses m this song, but I give here only the Chinese text of the first verse:- ;ff ;j:Jp P]= ft ffi ~ ~x :m :tc m ,g ~ Hi P]= Im ~ 1£ IDL ~ * :tc fill fU if ~~~ - 11 - tl\7, ~~11¥-~lk ~ 1£ ffl T itg 111: ~ ~ ~ This song is a.Iso known under the name + Ji ~ 1£ (Shih'-wii t'o hiia), "The Fifteen Bunches of Flowers." Mr. STENT continues:- " One wo uld not imagine by the tune that the words of this song relat ed to a very painful subject. ']'here is a pathos. and plaintiveness in the ln.nguage which are very affecting, and most of the ideas are conveyed figm·atively. I will not attempt to translate it, for indeed I feel I could not do justice to it, so I will simply give a general outline of it. A girl bemoans her hard fate, a.nd bitterly reproaches her parents for their hard-heartedness and covetousness in selling her, when quite a child, to a li fe of in famy. She, in pathetic language, describes her progress st ep by step in guilt, and the many incidents connected with such a life; flattered and caressed if successful, beaten severely with a whip if the reverse, t ill, as she touchingly expresses it, ' the tears trickled down my poor little face; ' on t o old age, with youth and beauty gone, everyone looking on her with contempt, no friends or relations to notice her, 110 son to bmn incense for her when she is dead ; what has she to hope for i Winding up with a prayer to heaven to protect her and send someone to t ake her from that horrible life, enable her to be virtuous, so that she may get on the road to heaven. There is something peculin.rly pathetic in this song, and much nJso to reflect on, for we learn from it that girls are remorselessly sold by their parents to a life of infamy ; probably two-third of the unfortunate beings we see being sold in a similar way, very few indeed t aking to it by choice. What struck me most . . was the earnest prayer at the encl of the song. No talk of 'cliin-chin-ing Joss,' but a direct prayer to heaven. There is something inexpres– sibly t ouching also in another part; she almost reproaches heaven for giving her the 'peach-blossom destiny' when she exclaims, 'Heaven's heart must L.ave felt resentment against me, or why allow the two characters " peach blossom" to alight on me i Why not cause them to fall on some other person~ SlU'ely, in my former life I could not have cultivated virtue f 'fu understand this my hearers must bear in mind that in Chinese fortune-telling certain characters are lucky or unlucky, as the case ma.y be; and the two ~h~racters tJ15 ~' '_peach blossom,' m·~ consi~ered particularly 1 yluc~y, for if they fa.11 ou a male child 1t 1s believed he wtll grow up a profligate, 1f a female, that sl•e will become fallen j so that parents I consider it ominous of the future fate of their children, shoul I they be so unfortunate as to have a ' peach-blossom destiny.' :Ur. STENT gives several other songs and ballads, but not having be n aLle to verify the music, I refrain from inser1ling them here. 6