As with most twentieth-century Chinese writers, little is known of Tsʻao Yü's life. Though his ancestral home was Chʻien-chiang 潛江, Hupei province, he himself was probably born in Tientsin in either 1909 or 1910.

as these things of nature, or natures of things, were sometimes deified by the Pagans plainly and nakedly in their own appellative names

In all this I see nothing but the benevolence and long-mindedness of the Deity.

Some collectors are interested in the backcards as well as the toys themselves.