Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/478

Rh to be already over seventy. He was well receired by the Emperor Wq Ti of the Han dynasty, whom he persuaded that the manufacture of gold out of cinnabar and the employment of that gold as dishes and goblets would tend to prolong life. He also declared that he had visited the Isles of the Immortals and had seen An-ch4 Shdng eating dates as big as melons, in consequence of which the Emperor sent an expedition to search for him. Meanwhile li Shao-chtin died.

Id She ^i^ (T. ;^ i^ . H. ^ j^ ). 9th cent. A.D. A poet of the T*ang dynasty, and a native of Lo-yang. On one occasion he fell into the hands of bandits; but when the captain of the gang heard his name he cried out, **What, the poet! Well, we won't skin yon. We like your verses: make us some now.'* Thereupon Li Shd took a pen and indited the following impromptu:

The rainy mist blows gently o*er the village by the stream, When from the leafy forest glades the brigand daggers gleam .... And yet there is no need to fear nor step from out their way, For more than half the world consists of bigger rogues than they !

At this the bandits laughed approvingly, and let him go unharmed.

Li Shen ^iJfc. A.D. 810-859. Thirteenth son of Li Shun, and sixteenth Emperor of the T^ang dynasty. He was placed on the throne by the eunuchs in 846, although Li Yen had left a joung son. Clever and just, open to reproof and economical, an industrious ruler and foud of his people, he earned for himself ihe flattering title of yj\ "^ ^ Little T*ai Tsung, t. e. another Tii Shih-min. He hated the eunuchs, but could not free himself irom their power. His reign was uneventful. He died, like his Irother Li HSng, from injudicious doses of the elixir of life, and liis eldest son was placed on the throne instead of his intended beir, the third son. Canonised as ^ ^ ^ ^.

Iii Sheng ^J^ (T. %^). A.D. 727-793. A General and statesman, who was descended from a family of soldiers betonging