What enmity is there between Chao Kuei-weng and myself, I thought, what enmity is there between me and the people on the street? I can remember only one thing. Twenty years ago I trampled the daily account book[1] of Mr. Hoary Tradition under my feet, a deed which he greatly resented. Although Chao Kuei-weng did not know Mr. Hoary Tradition, he must have heard of the incident and in his indignation must have turned the people on the street against me. But how about the children? They were not even born at the time; why should they stare at me today with such fearful eyes, as if afraid of me and thinking of doing me harm? This frightens and puzzles me and makes me sad.
I understand now! Their mothers and fathers must have told them!
3.
I cannot sleep at night. One must study a thing before one can understand it.
They—some of them—have been bambooed and put into cangues by the magistrate, some have been slapped in the face by the gentry, some have had their wives assaulted by the constables, and some have seen their parents hounded to death by creditors; but their faces were never so fearful and menacing then as they were yesterday.
The strangest thing of all was that the woman who was beating her son on the street yesterday should have had her eyes fixed on me when she cursed her son, saying, "Your father's , I won't feel right until I have taken a few bites at you!" I started violently and could not hide my fear. At
- ↑ An allusion to the Classics, which have been characterized by their critics as of no more value and no more edifying than the account book kept by shopkeepers.
