Watson provides a learned little riff on the origins of the authentic stone and of its reproductions through the ages, and supplies a snap of the last, 19th-century, version.
At another stop on the canal Lu’s boatmen tie up in Wuxi County. Wuxi means ‘No tin’. Lu You promptly remembers an ancient poem: ‘Where there’s tin the world’s at war/, No tin and the world is pure’. He notes that ‘To this day if tin should come to light people always cover it up again, and no one dares take it’.Then he describes, in his lapidary fashion, that the local top official there, Director Yu Zicai, always comes to say farewell in a sedan chair; he ‘doesn’t take a folding chair with him, and personally hands out his visiting cards’. Here Watson produces another riff on the exquisite manners of Director Yu. He shows respect to his guest by arriving in a sedan ‘of the simpler sort and not using his folding chair.’
Why is this exquisite? Because the guests would be on straw mats ‘and sitting on a folding chair would have been a statement of superiority when others were on the floor’. Handing out his visiting cards personally, rather than ordering an underling to do it, further demonstrated Director Yu’s politesse. Thank you, Philip Watson.
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