Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/633

614 creation began. His breath became the wind; his voice, the thunder; his left eye, the sun; his right eye, the moon; his blood flowed in rivers; his hair grew into trees and plants; his flesh became the soil; his sweat descended as rain; while the parasites which infested his body were the origin of the human race.

 P'an Lang 潘閬 (T. 逍遙). 10th cent. A.D. A native of Chiang-tu in Kiangsu, who was a seller of drugs at Lo-yang and attracted much notice by his great poetical talents. By 996 his fame had reached the Court, and he received the honorary degree of chin shih together with an appointment in the Imperial Academy. Becoming mixed up in the affair of Lu To-hsün, he fled to the mountains disguised as a priest, and entered a monastery. Some verses however which he wrote for a bell-tower caused the other priests to suspect his identity, and he was once more obliged to flee; but he was soon forced to give himself up and was banished to 信 Hsin-chou, where he passed his time in composing poetry. Some of his lines have taken their place as household words:—


 * So that my verse be rich and rare,
 * I reck not that my means are spare.

  P'an Lei 潘耒 (T. 次耕. H. 稼堂). A.D. 1646-1708. A profound scholar, whose wide range of learning included chronology and mathematics. He was especially skilled in ancient literature and in poetry. In 1679 he passed a private examination and was employed upon the History of the Mings; but the jealousy of his fellow-compilers, who were mostly chin shih graduates, led to his degradation, and he took the opportunity of the death of his mother to retire altogether. His poems, under the title of 遂初堂集, record impressions of famous spots visited by him. He also published an edition of the 日知錄 (see Ku Chiang), and the 類音, a pronouncing dictionary.

  P'an Mei 潘美 (T. 仲詢). A.D. 921-987. A native of Ta-