Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/231

212 Ching-chung on the outbreak of his rebellion in 1674; and after an attempt to starve him into complicity had failed, he was kept in close confinement. He employed his leisure in composing verses and essays, which he scrawled with a bit of charcoal on the white-washed walls of his cell. In 1676 Kêng Ching-chung himself was forced to submit. He first compelled Fan to hang himself, after which he burnt Fan's corpse and dispersed the ashes, in the hope of destroying all traces of his crime. Fan's constancy however was reported to the Emperor K'ang Hsi, who caused his ashes to be collected and interred with high honours. A collection of his works, composed in prison, was published with a preface by the Emperor. Canonised as 忠貞.

  Fan Ch'êng-ta 范成大 (T. 致能. H. 石湖). A.D. 1126-1193. A poet and official of the Sung dynasty. The first Emperor of the Southern Sung dynasty made him a secretary in the Board of Civil Office; but the Censors objecting to such rapid promotion, he was forced to become magistrate at 處 Ch'u-chou in Chehkiang, where he improved the system of public labour and restored the old irrigation works. In 1170 he was sent as envoy to the Chin$a$ Tartars, and later on to Ssŭch'uan, where he put the frontier defences in order. In 1179 he was a Minister of State. Besides a collection of poems, entitled 石湖詞, he wrote the 范材菊譜, a work on 35 varieties of chrysanthemum cultivated in his own gardens. He also published various records of his long journeys, especially that from Ssŭch'uan to Hangchow in 1177, entitled 吳船錄. This last work contains notes of a mission of 300 priests to India in search of Buddhist relics. Canonised as 文穆.

  Fan Chi 樊姬. The consort of Prince 莊 Chuang of the Ch'u State. Because her lord was too much devoted to the chase she abstained for two years from animal food; until 