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| 0437 |
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 |
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But, perhaps, the most interesting figure among the
Su-chou dignitaries was Chin T'ai-tsin, the magistrate
of the 'Independent Department' of Su-chou, a lively
and witty man between fifty and sixty, full of culture and
practical common-sense. His very dress and the furniture
of his Ya-mên betokened taste and refinement. Clothed
in dainty pale silks befitting the season, showing me with
a connoisseur's joy his fine porcelain cups, flower-pots, and
other 'things of merit,' he looked the very embodiment
of a well-bred and cultured administrator. Of his scholarly
attainments he made no show, though they had earned him
a rank superior to that of his Tao-t'ai, out of tactful regard
for whom he never wore his proper hierarchical button.
But from his questions and quick grasp of points of
historical interest I could see how wide were his reading
and his mental horizon.
The light collation to which he treated me when re-
turning his visit, was far more entertaining than the great
dinner jointly given by the three official 'chiefs' of Su-chou.
Out of an excess of polite attention, they had fixed upon
my 'own' temple hall as the scene of the symposium. The
very morning after I had pitched my camp at the 'Spring
of Wine,' I had noticed with surprise the rapid, though,
of course, very superficial, process of patching-up which the
neglected old hall was undergoing. When my hosts had
gathered with all their following, filling the temple court
with a gaily dressed crowd, huge umbrellas and other trap-
pings of office, and I was duly invited to my own reception
hall, I could scarcely recognize it in its refurbished elegance.
It was an imposing banquet, lasting to my dismay from
4 P.M. until nightfall. I soon gave up counting the dishes
with all their expensive and far-fetched dainties. Chin
T'ai-tsin, who, as the junior in the official trio, had charged
himself with all arrangements—and, I fear, also with their
expense—could be trusted to do things in style. He
and the genial General rivalled each other in enlivening
the Petronian feast with amusing stories drawn for my
benefit chiefly from their Turkestan experiences. Even
the meek old Tao-t'ai, who was allowed to sip his tea
instead of the superior arrack presented to the rest of
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813
814
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