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The T'ang poet Wei Ying-wu (737?-790?) has left some 40 poems with the title "Ko-hsing" or "Songs." In content they tend to fall into two categories, those which are strongly colored by religious Taoism, and those which express social and political criticism. Both categories derive from the poet's experiences as a member of the aristocracy and an official at the court of Emperor Hsilan-tsung (685-762). Emperor Hsüan-tsung began his reign in 713, and when Wei Yingwu first entered official service as a member of the imperial guard, the T'ang court was strongly imbued with an atmosphere of religious Taoism, the founder of Taoism being worshipped as an ancestor of the imperial family. The life of the court was marked by a brilliance and lavishness that made it seem to belong to the world of the Taoist immortals rather than to the mundane world, and Wei Ying-wu's poems capture the full brilliance of the time. But this world was wiped out by the An Lu-shan rebellion, which led to Emperor Hsüan-tsung's abdication in 755 and his death not long after, and Wei Ying-wu was compelled, like so many others of the time, to undergo great hardship. Determined to work toward the restoration of the glory of Emperor Hsüan-tsung's time, he took the civil service examination and became a member of the bureacracy. But his official career was beset by frequent frustrations, while at the same time he could not help but observe the numerous ills that beset the society of his age. His observations in time took form in his poems of political and social criticism. Thus it may be seen that both types of poems entitled "Ko-hsing" are very closely related to Wei Ying-wu's career as a courtier and an official, and are therefore very different in tone from his more lyrical works, which abound in an air of Buddhist quietism. But it is perhaps precisely because he had the "Ko-hsing" poems in which to give expression to his observations and criticisms of society that his meditative poems were able to concentrate upon the creation of a mood of pure lyricism.

Traditional Chinese critics, speaking of the T'ang poet Chia Tao 賈島 (779?-843), have often grouped him with Meng Chiao 孟郊, and employed such adjectives as clzien-se 蹇澁, "lame and tortured", or han-shou 寒瘦 "cold and lean", to describe the style of the two men. In other instances they have regarded him as belonging to the same line as Meng Hao-jan, Wei Ying-wu, and Liu Tsung-yüan, a poet of the stillness and purity of nature. As Wen I-to has recently pointed out, however, Chia Tao, along with Yao Ho 姚合, formed the center of an independent group in the poetic world of the middle T'ang, and should therefore not be counted among the members of the school of poets mentioned above. The facts of Chia Tao's life are difficult to ascertain. In his youth he was a Buddhist priest, but later returned to lay life and became a disciple of Han Yü, hoping to secure an official position. He failed repeatedly in the government examinations, during which time he wrote a number of attacks on the government authorities and high officials, a fact which would seem to bear out the traditional report that he got along badly with the officials. Late in life he managed, by circumventing the customary route to office, to secure a post in the provincial government in the region of present day Szechwan, though the details of the matter are impossible to determine. In any event, he was pursued by failure throughout his life, and his spirit of bitterness and frustration kept him in constant difficulties. This is the spirit we find crystalized in his works which, though they may contain elements of style that could be called tortured or lean, at the same time give an impression of enormous energy.

Among the three T'ang poets Wang Wei 王維 (699-759), Wei Ying-wu 韋應物 (737-?) and Liu Tsung-yüan 柳宗元 (773-819) who have been said to have lived in solitude and rage, one ditects certain differences. In Liu Tsung-yüan's writings his convictions and bitter experiences are often reflected. The nature that he communed with was the naked, inartificial one, in which he discovered much beauty. This beauty, however, was not able to dispel his deeply felt grief. Because of a political change of the Yung-chen 永貞 year, Liu Tsung-yüan was removed from his post in the central government and transferred to a barbaric place, Yung-chou 永州. Hence his nature poems contain descriptions of profound suffering. Liu Tsungyüan's style was influenced by that of Hsieh Ling-yün 謝靈運 (385-433), the famous nature poet of the Six Dynasties. Unlike his contemporary Han Yü 韓愈 (768-824), Liu Tsung-yüan did neither admire Li Po 李白 nor Tu Fu 杜甫. This fact might help to explain the differences between Liu and Han.

use of movable type for printing ing in China, which may be comI pared to the English logotype, with each single character represented by its own individual solid type body, dates back to the middle of the eleventh century. During the period of Ching-li (1041-49) in the Sung Dynasty-approximately four centuries before Gutenberg cut his matrices in Mainz-a man by the name of Pi Sh6ng made separate type out of plastic clay hardened by baking in fire. This momentous event has been recorded by Shen Kua (1032-94), a younger contemporary of the inventor, in his memoirs.' To the best of our knowledge, books printed with the earthenware type made at that time are nonexistent, although the famous bibliophile, Yeh Tehui (1864-1927), in his catalog noted such a work in his possession. According to him, his copy of the Wei-Su-chou chi, a collection of literary writings by Wei Ying-wu of the eighth century, was printed in this medium about the year 1056. He contended that the defective impression betrayed the irregularities and imperfection of the hand-cut clay type used at that time.2 There are other isolated references to books printed with movable type, presumably wooden, in the Sung Dynasty. The annotated catalog of rare books in the i perial collection of Emperor Ch'ien-lung lists a copy of the Classic of Poetry in which the character tzg was printed sideways.3 This is an irrefutable proof that the text was printed with movable type and not from the conventional wooden blocks. Another work printed in 1221 with movable type-believed to have been wood-was the Ti-hsiiek, a compendium of ethics for the emperors, compiled by Fan Tsu-yii (1041-93). This was described by a well-known bibliographer, Miao Ch'uan-sun (1844-1919), in his annotated catalog.4 Still another extremely interesting specimen of early movable-type printing is the Pi-shui ch'iin-ying tai-wen huiyuan, an encyclopedia compiled by Liu Ta-k'o for candidates participating in the civil examinations, with a Preface dated 1245. It is in the possession of the Sinological Library in Nanking, which brought out a facsimile reproduction of two leaves of this work in 1928 in a collection of specimen leaves from its rare books.5 Unlike other works the mode of printing of which is subject to conjecture, this book contains a statement indicating how it was produced. A colophon reads: "Printed with movable type by the Li Tst the passage containing details of the invention was translated by Thomas Francis Carter in his The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931), pp. 160-61.