s wife and son. When a month had passed, he died without
any sign of illness.

That same day one of his officers was out walking. Suddenly he saw a
heavy cloud of dust rising along the highway, while flags and banners
darkened the sun. A thousand knights were escorting a man who sat his
horse proudly and like a hero. And when the officer looked at his
face, it was the general Dschong Tschong-Fu. Hastily he stepped to the
edge of the road, in order to allow the cavalcade to pass, and
watched it ride by. The horsemen took the way to the Lake of the
Maidens, where they disappeared.

Note: The expression: "Dschou Bau took the blame upon
himself" is explained by the fact that the territorial
mandarin is responsible for his district, just as the
emperor is for the whole empire. Since extraordinary
natural phenomena are the punishment of heaven, their
occurrence supposed the guilt of man. This train of
thought is in accord with the idea, as in this case,
that differences occurring among the spirits of the air
lead to misfortune, since where virtue is in the
ascendant in the mortal world, the spirits are prevented
from giving way to such demonstrations. "Drums and
kettledrums sounded together": the kettledrums sounded
the attack, and the drums the retreat. The simultaneous
sounding of both signals was intended to throw the
enemy's army into disorder.

XLVII

THE DISOWNED PRINCESS

At the time that the Tang dynasty was reigning there lived a man named
Liu I, who had failed to pass his examinations for the doctorate. So
he traveled home again. He had gone six or seven miles when a bird
flew up in a field, and his horse shied and ran ten miles before he
could stop him. There he saw a woman who was herding sheep on a
hillside. He looked at her and she was lovely to look upon, yet her
face bore traces of hidden grief. Astonished, he asked her what was
the matter.

The woman began to sob and said: "Fortune has forsaken me, and I am in
need and ashamed. Since you are kind enough to ask I will tell you
all. I am the youngest daughter of the Dragon-King of the Sea of
Dungting, and was married to the second son of the Dragon-King of Ging
Dschou. Yet my husband ill-treated and disowned me. I complained to my
step-parents, but they loved their son blindly and did nothing. And
when I grew insistent they both became angry, and I was sent out here
to herd sheep." W