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Rh directdoii of alcbemistic research, on which subject and also on the discovery of the elixir of life he published several treatises. A. collection of twenty-one essays still passes ander his name; bat the work has not yet been subjected to critical examination by a competent European scholar, and its genuineness is consequently doubtful. The Emperor Wu Ti held him in high esteem, and in A.D. 129 excused him from the ceremonies of vassalage; after which he seems to have mixed himself up in some treasonable conspiracy, with a view to secure succession to the throne. Wu Ti sent a Commissioner to punish him; but ere the latter could arrive, Huai-nan Tzti had perished by his own hand. Tradition, however, says that he positively discovered the elixir of immortality and that after drinking of it he rose up to heaven in broad daylight. Also, that he dropped the vessel which had contained this elixir into his courtyard, and that his dogs and poultry sipped ap the dregs, and immediately sailed up to heaven after him!

Liu An-Bhili fj ^ fft (T- ^^t-^- it Ift)- ^D. 1048- 1125. The son of a high ofiScial of the Sung dynasty, who graduated as chin shih, and then studied for some time under Ssti-ma Euang. When the latter became Minister he gave Liu an appointment in the Historiography department; and at Ssti-ma Euang's death in 1086, Liu was promoted to be Censor. He was persistent and outspoken in his remonstrances to the Emperor GhS Tsung, being arged on by his mother, who begged him not to be hindered from doing his duty by any consideration for herself. His behaviour in the Imperial presence, when sweat ran down the backs of the courtiers for very fear, caused him to be likened to a tiger, a phrase which had previously been used in reference to his great exemplar, Ssti-ma Euang. As for himself, he declared that his sole ambition was to be regarded as '^the perfect man of the period 1086 — 1094.*' After a stormy and somewhat chequered career, he