'Indeed, in a manner of
speaking, it is entirely a detail of no consequence whether or not the
sublime Lo Kuan ever existed. In reality his very commonplace name may
have been simply Lung; his inspired work may have been written a score
of dynasties before him by some other person, or they may have been
composed by the enlightened Emperor of the period, who desired to
conceal the fact, yet these matters would not for a moment engage the
interest of any ordinary passer-by. Lo Kuan Chang is not a person in
the ordinary expression; he is an embodiment of a distinguished and
utterly unassailable national institution. The Heaven-sent works with
which he is, by general consent, connected form the necessary
unchangeable standard of literary excellence, and remain for ever
above rivalry and above mistrust. For this reason the matter is
plainly one which does not interest this person.'
"In the course of a not uneventful existence this self-deprecatory
person has suffered many reverses and disappointments. During his
youth the high-minded Empress on one occasion stopped and openly
complimented him on the dignified outline presented by his body in
profile, and when he was relying upon this incident to secure him a
very remunerative public office, a jealous and powerful Mandarin
substituted a somewhat similar, though really very much inferior,
person for him at the interview which the Empress had commanded.
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