Identifier: middlekingdomsu02will (find matches)
Title: The Middle Kingdom; a survey of the geography, government, literature, social life, arts, and history of the Chinese Empire and its inhabitants
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Williams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells), 1812-1884
Subjects:
Publisher: New York Scribner
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ecame es-pecially covetous of the burial ground of his district magis-trate Chu. Hoping to gain a surreptitious benefit from thefelicitous luck of the plat, he secretly buried his own tomb-stone there, and at the end of several years brought suit for itsrecovery. Unable to comprehend the affair, Chu repaired tothe burial spot, where indeed the geomancy of the grave wasfound to be entirely in accord with the rules, but upon remov-ing the earth the stone of his enemys remote ancestry was dis-closed. The suit was in consequence declared against him, Churemoved his residence to the black tea country, and his enviousneighbor entered in triumph upon possession of the graveyard. Not so readily, however, did the powers above condone thisiniquity. One night there arose a tempest of unheard-of vio- 1 Compare Owen Jones, Grammar of Ornament, Chap. XIV., and Examplesof Chinese Ornament (London, 1867). Gazette des Beaux-Arts for October andNovember, 1873, and January, 1874. 108 THE MIDDLE KINGDOM.
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The Vengeance of Heaven upon the False Grave. EXAMPLES OF CHINESE ILLUSTRATIVE ART. 109 lence, when the thunder and lightning were indescribable, thehideous roar and flash of which terrified the country far andnear, boding no good to its wretched inhabitants. The follow-ing morning the grave was discovered in ruins, stone and epi-taph uprooted, even the corpse and coffin missing. The ven-geance of Heaven had repaired the injustice of man. The illustration which depicts the tempest personified in itsfull terror shows us the Lui Kimg, or God of Thunder, almostthe only Chinese mythological deity who is drawn with wings.The cocks head and claws, the hammer and chisel, represent-ing the splitting peal attending a flash, the circlet of fire encom-passing a number of drums to typify the reverberating thunderand the ravages of the irresistible lightning, present a grotesqueensemble which is quite unique even among the hizarrerie oforiental figures; the somewhat juvenile attempts of the artist

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