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Rh and Wang Sha-wên fell, be was banished to a post in Yünnan. After serving in various remote regions he returned to the capital, and at the recommendation of P‘ei Tu was appointed secretary in the Board of Rites; but when the latter retired, he was again dismissed to the provinces. His great worth as a poet was however folly recognised by Po Chü-i, who called him "a hero of song;" and in the year before he died he was promoted to be President of the Board of Rites. In composition he was such a purist that he left a beautiful poem unfinished because it was necessary to use the character 餻 dumplings, which character was not to be found in the Confucian Canon. Many of his verses were of a satirical turn, and these often involved him in trouble with his superiors. See P‘ei Tu.

1380

Liu Yüan 劉淵 (T. 元海). Died A.D. 310. A descendant of a Turkic chieftain, to whom the first Emperor of the Han dynasty had given a kinswoman in marriage and who took the surname Liu. He won the favour of the Emperor Wu Ti, and in 290 became Generalissimo of the Five Turkic Tribes of Shansi. In 304 he took the titles of Khan and King of Han; and in 308 he proclaimed himself the first Emperor of a new Han dynasty, the style of which was changed in A.D. 319 to Chao. In 309 his son Liu Ts‘ung and the ex-robber Shih Lo attacked the Imperial armies, and in the following years acquired for him all the southern half of Shansi and eastward as far as Shantung, often appearing under the walls of Lo-yang itself.

1381

Liu Yung 劉墉 (T. 崇如. H. 石庵). A.D. 1720–1805. Son of Liu T‘ung-hsün. He graduated as chin shih in 1751, and rose to be a Grand Secretary and a Senior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. His collection of poems, entitled 石庵詩集, is still much admired, and his acquaintance with the Classics, the histories, and the poets, was profound. He was also famous as a calligraphist.