Recounting Oil Lamps
Various Oil Lamps unearther throughout the
country
Poetic light of the oil lamp
Throughout history, oil lamps have had a close relationship with literature.
As scholars' only company in dark nights, oil lamps created a romantic
atmosphere. and the lamps themselves became the theme of poems and verses.
Oil lamps also helped create one of the stingiest characters in Chinese
literature: in Wu Ching-tzu's The Scholars, a miser named Yan Jiansheng refused to close his eyes when he
dyed until his wife extinguished one of two lampwicks.
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