Evening star., 1923-09-25
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
AN OLD CHINESE GARDEN. Kate

AN OLD CHINESE GARDEN Kate
Kerby. Shanghai: Chung Hwa
| Book Company.
Four hundred years ago-a little
| more, maybe, a trife less. perhaps
there lived in Soochow the politician
Wong whei Yui. Then, just as both
before that time and since. there could
not be found the wide world over
more tickle jade than the goddess of
| political good luck. It befell, therefore,
| that quite suddenly one day Wong
whei Yui found himself facing the
cold shoulder and alanting eye or
| this deity's disfavor: Now in those
| far days the Order of the Lame Duck
! for the kindly healing of broken poll
| iticians had not been invented. SO 1t
came to pass that Wong Whei was
! constrained to walk away by him
| self along the dismal path that leads
! II x X x
On the outskirts of Soochow. as in
tan cities of whatever date. there lay
waste and Uttered stretch, waiting,
1 Ii may be, for some shrewd realtor
of the Ming era to turn 1t into
subdivision neatly plated out for the
fleeing of ensnared and innocent
home builders. Wong Whei greatly
| desired this tract. And not yet
| wholly divested of practical acumen
and political method, he, quietly slip
\ ping in ahead of the possible pro-
moter, acquired this unattractive
\ acreage for his own. Already, in
ina gination, he had created lordly
| pleasure ground out of this shabby
reach of weed and scrub and lazy
pond oozing idly off into swamp and
/ muck.
| And Wong Whei cleared and
drained and dug and planted and
tended. The seasons smiled upon
him. The gods of growing things
each lent a hand. And, finally. the
place Of beauty and peace that had
so long lain a mere picture in the
mind of Wong Whei moved out and
took possession OF the soil. Fruit
trees in clouds OF bloom stretched
long arcades OF sweet-smeliing love-
liness. Leafy corners screened by
Understanding stems OF slender bam-
boo invited to seclusion. Winding
paths led along the ways of medita-
! tion. Laughing brooks called for
companionship The sluggish pond
changed to quick and crystal mir
ror, repeating the beauty OF the bor-
dering banks and the shining stars
and the radiant moon And Wong
Whei gave to his garden the name
OF Tseh Tsen Yuen, ''the Garden of
the Unsuccessful Politician" In in
tent q memorial to failure. Tseh
Tsen Yuen became in effect a MON
ument to the indestructible power OF
! beauty.
As the garden through the season.
ing years ripeued to mellow perfec-
tion, men came from far and near to
gather In the magic Of it's beauty,
the benediction of its peace. More
often than any other there came
to this spot Wong whei's friend, Wen
Chen Ming, great landscape artist,
great poet. too. And just as Wong
Whei had years before moved the
picture garden of his mind out into
the substantial soil itself. so Wen
Chen Ming by magic of his art took
ut up again and set IL, against time
and change. IN the imperIshable do
main of art. Moving back and forth
between the living garden and It's
pictured face looking out from under
the hand of the artist, men marveled
at the oneness of the two. The same
were they-not only in form and line,
in color and mass, but the same, too
in power to reach out into the human
heart, stirring 1t to the melancholy
that pure beauty--so changing. so
heeting-is sure to bring. And by
and by Wen Chen Ming had gathered
up upon a silken scroll the full love-
Illness of Tseh Tsen Yuen. To each
picture he added q little poem in a
further completing touch. So paired
of a great artist. the garden OF Wong
Whei moved out OF the years into
time.
| Wong whei Yui went his way. And
Wen Chen Ming his. The garden
passer from change into ruin. Ming
rule gave way to Manchu. And at
intervals along this time there came
occasional rumors from scholars and
art lovers of a rare scroll of pictures
by Wen Chen Ming. Those who trav-
treasure declared it to embody the
best of the Ming art tradition, with.
besides. many a touch reminiscent of
the art tn of the preceding pgehag period t the n
Khan.
IAN Old Chinese Garden" serves to
bring to life again the place of
beauty that. so long ago, Wong whei
created and Wen Chen perpetuated
In a spirit of high artistic initiative
and enterprise Mrs. Kerby has
through this reproduction of the gar
den scroll of Wen Chen, opened to
modern art lovers of the west the
topmost point of power achieved by
, this famous painter of the Ming pc
riod. A sumptuous volume, surpass-
ingly fit in the sum of its externals
to house the treasure within. A spa
cious thing of royal hues, its LEAKAGE
silken to the touch as the parent
Lscroll. Clearly a book that calls for
nothing less than ceremonial ap-
proach. Once inside, however, the
: old garden and Wen Chen take com
Walk" and dreamy Tower" 1.-THE
Lotus Cove" 1.-THE Place of Cleal
Meditation" The Bower of Fra.
GRANGE" and place of Smiles" .The
Bamboo Grove" THE Peace-Tree
Bank" lead one on from lure to lure
through the garden loveliness that
ages ago Wong Whei wrought out OF
the barren acreage of Soochow's
draggled outskirts. One hears him
saying to his friend, Il have made
it. You must hold it," Then, with
; the enchanting garden and set II
upon his scroll so gently, bit by bit
that 1t brooded there like q live birc
upon it's nest That velvet touch OF
softness. that clear quality of life
have passed over in persistent ap-
, peal from the original to this re-
, production. So here does one meet
too, that strange evocative power
that all high oriental art possesses
a power that draws out such thoughts
and emotions as certainly do not lie
In the mere line and arrangement
y and subtle shadings of the picture
! itself. Amazingly suggestive still
these pictures once removed from the
, original The art of reproduction here
has in a, genius quite its own splen-
didly supported that of the artist
himself.