Now in order to vihose who might still be sceptical that husbands in a truly love, deeply love their wives, I could produce abundant proofs from ese history and literature. For this purpose I should particularly like to quote and translate here an elegy written on the death of his wife by YuaCHO, a poet of the Tang dynasty. But unfortuhe piece is too long for quotation here in this already too long article. Those acquainted with ese, however, who wish to know how deep the affe, _affe, true love and not sexual passion whi modern times is often mistaken for love, _how deep the love of a husband in a for his wife is, should read this elegy which be found in any ordinary colle of the Tang poets. The title of the elegy is, _ "Lio ease the ag heart." But as I ot use this elegy for my purpose, I will, instead, give here a short poem of four lines written by a moder who was once a secretary of the late Viceroy g Chih-tung. The poet went togther with his wife in the suite of the Viceroy to Wug and after staying there many years, his wife died. Immediately after he too had to leave Wug. He wrote the poem on leaving Wug. The words in ese are
The meaning in English is something like this:_
This grief is on to everyone,
One hundred years how many attain ?
But tis heart breaking, o waters of the Yangtze,
Together we came, _but together we return not.
The feeling here is as deep, if not deeper; but the words are fewer, and the language is simpler, even than Tennysons.
Break, break, break On the cold grey stones,sea!
Butfor the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!
But now what about the love of a wife in a for her husband? I do not think any evidence is o prove this. It is true that in a the bride and bride-groom as a rule never see each other until the marriage day, ahat there is love between even bride and bride-groom, be seen in these four lines of poetry from the T ang dynasty: _
The meaning in English of the above is something like this, In the bridal chamber last night stood red dles;
Waiting for the m to salute the father and
mother in the hall, Toilet finished,_in a low voice she asks her sweet-
heart husband,
"Are the shades in my painted eyebrows quite a la mode."
But here in order to uand the above, I must tell you something about marriage in a. There are in every legal marriage in a six ceremonies : first, asking for the name, i.e., formal proposal; sed receiving the silk presents, i. e., betrothal: third fixing the day of marriage; fourth fetg the bride; fifth p libation before the wild goose, i.e., plighting troth, so-called because the wild goose is supposed to be most faithful in ubial love; sixth _ temple presentation. Of these six ceremohe last two are the most important, I shall therefore here describe them more iail.
The fourth ceremony, fetg the bride at the present day, is, except in my province Fukien where we keep up the old s, _ generally dispensed with, as it entails too much trouble and expeo the brides family. The bride now, instead of beiched, is sent to the bride-grooms house. When the bride arrives there, the bridegroom receives her at the gate and himself opens the door of the bridal chair and leads her to the hall of the house. There the bride and bride-groom worship Heaven ah, i. e. to say, they fall on their kness with their faces turo the door of the hall with a table carrying two red