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446 expedition against the northern foe. Dissatisfied with the orders he received as to his movements, he asked to be allowed to lead his troops straight for the Khan himself; and when not permitted to do this he was so overcome with anger that somehow or other he lost his way, and arrived at a certain point long after the Commander-in-chief. The enquiry which followed caused him so much chagrin that he cut his own throat. He was a man of so few words that the Emperor Wu Ti said of him, '^Li Enang hardly opens his mouth. He is simple and sincere as though one of the people; yet all the empire looks up to him. Truly he exemplifies the old saying that the peach-tree and the plum-tree (^ Li =: plum) speak not, yet all around them are seen the footprints of men.'*

Li Knang ^ ^. Died A.D. 1498. A eunuch under the Emperor Biiao Tsung, who acquired great power by his skill in necromancy and charms. He took on himself to make irregular appointments, collected bribes from all officials high and low, engrossed the salt monopoly, seized land, and seemed secure of a long le^se of power. However in 1498 the building of a pavilion on the Coal EBll was followed by sickness and death among the Imperial family, and by fires in the palace. Thereupon the Empress Dowager complained of him to the Emperor, and he was forced to commit suicide. A list of bribes received from prominent men, in which gold figured as yellow rice and silver as white rice, was found in his house; but so many persons were implicated that it was thought wiser to hush the matter up.

Li Kuang-U ^ ^ ^. Died B.C. 94. A military commander under the Emperor Wu Ti of the Han dynasty. His sister was a fiivourite concubine, known as Li Fu-jen, and he himself was sent in command of an expedition to Ferghana to obtain a tribute of horses. He captured the city of ^ j^^ Erh-shih, but fidlad to