Note 44 — Chapter I · THE “LIAO CHAI”—THE “HUNG LOU MÊNG”
Reading edition
The great poet Tu Fu dreamt that his greater predecessor, Li T‘ai-po, appeared to him, “coming when the maple-grove was in darkness, and returning while the frontier pass was still obscured,”—that is, at night, when no one could see him; the meaning being that he never came at all, and that those “who know me (P‘u Sung-ling)” are equally non-existent.