334 CHINESE LITERATURE
who, like many other Chinese poets, often took more wine than was good for him. He was famed for his poetry, and also for his calligraphy, specimens of his art being highly prized by collectors. In 1642, we are told, "he was ill with his teeth;" and at length got into his coffin, which all Chinese like to keep handy, and wrote a farewell to the world, resting his paper on the edge of the coffin as he wrote. On completion of the piece he laid himself down and died. Here are the lines :
" An eternal home awaits me;
shall I hesitate to go ? Or struggle for a few more hours
of fleeting life below ? A home wherein the clash of arms
I can never hear again I And shall I strive to linger
in this thorny world of pain f The breeze will soon blow cool o'er me,
and the bright moon shine derhead\ When blended with the gems of earth
I lie in my last bed. My Pen and ink shall go with me
inside my funeral hearse, So that if Pve leisure ' over there '
I may soothe my soul with verse!'
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