e
mingling of _yang_ and _yin_. While the mountain, enveloped in mists,
recalls the union of these two principles, the legend of forces thus
revealed by no means pauses here. Fabulous or real, the animals and plants
habitually seen in Chinese paintings express a like conception.

The dragon is the ancestor of everything that bears feathers or scales. He
represents the element of water, the waters of the earth, the mists of the
air, the heavenly principle. He is seen breaking through the clouds like
some monstrous apparition, unveiling for an instant the greatness of a
mystery barely discerned. The tiger is the symbol of the earthly
principle, a personification of quadrupeds as distinct from birds and
reptiles. His ferocious form lurks in the tempest. Defying the hurricane
which bends the bamboos and uproots trees, he challenges the furies of
nature that are hostile to the expression of the universal soul. The
bamboo is the symbol of wisdom, the pine is the emblem of will-power and
life. The plum tree in flower is a harmonious combination of the two
principles. It symbolizes virginal purity.

[Illustration: PLATE V. PORTRAIT OF LUe TUNG-PING BY T'ENG CH'ANG-YU
T'ang Period. Collection of August Jaccaci. Lent to the Metropolitan
Museum, New York.]

Thus is built up a complete system of allusions similar to the allegories
of our own classics but superior in that they never degenerate into frozen
symbols, but on the contrary keep in close touch with nature, investing
her with a vibrant life, in which human consciousness vanishes making way
for the dawning consciousness of infinitude.

Buddhism goes still further. It does not even believe in the reality of
the world. In this belief, forms are but transitory, the universe an
illusion forever flowing into an unending future. Outside of the supreme
repose, in the six worlds of desire,[3] the things that are susceptible to
pain and death pursue their evolution. Souls travel this closed cycle
under the most diverse forms, from hell to the gods, advancing or
retreating, in accordance with the good deeds or errors committed in
previous existences. A stone, a plant, an insect, a demon, or a god are
only illusory forms, each encompassing an identical soul on its way to
deliverance, as it is caught at different stages of its long calvary and
imprisoned through original sin and the instinctive desire for life.
Whence we see emerging a new feeling of charity which embraces all