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antil about 200 B.C. (see Ch^eng Miao). He was a historiographer under king Hsilan^ of the Choa dynasty; hence his name.

1708 Shih Chung Jfe^. (T. ^^. H. f^^ and |g|^ and ISi IS ^ A ^^^ l§i fill )- 1^^^ ^^^^' ^'^' ^ ^^^^^ of Nanking, who did not learn to speak until he was sefenteen. He was a marvellously defer artist; and on one occasion, when calling on a friend who was not at home, he upset the ink on a piece of white silk so skilfully that the result was a charming landscape.

1709 Shih Ch*ung :Q ^ (T. ^j^.R. g^TJX). Died A.D. 300. A native of ^ Ch'ing-chou in Shantung. Son of Shih Pao. For his successes against the House of Wu, he was ennobled as Marquis, and sent to command at Ohing-chou in Hu-Euang with the title of Minister of Agriculture, and later on to Hsii-chou in Eoangsu. He was one of the twenty-four friends of the rich and ostentatious Ghia Mi, and shared his downfall. He himself was executed, his family exterminated, and his vast wealth, including thirty water- mills and some eight hundred slaves, confiscated, on account of his refusal to surrender a beautiful concubine, named 緑珠 Lü Chu, to ^^ Sun Hsiu, a favourite of the powerful Prince of Chao. Just before his arrest, the concubine in question killed herself by jumping from an upper storey. Fond of dispky, he was always striving to outshine Wang E^ai. When the latter had his pots polished with honey, he used wax for fuel. When the Emperor lent Wang E'ai a beautiful piece of coral two feet in height, he seized an iron sceptre and smashed it to atoms, at once producing some half dozen pieces, all of them three or four feet in height. After this, Waug E^ai retired from the cpntest.

1710 Shih Ch'ung-kuei ^gMM* ^ep^^^ of Shih Ching-t'ang, whom he succeeded in 942 as second and last Emperor of the Later Chin dynasty. Although little more than a debauchee, he struggled hard to throw off the Tartar yoke; but he was overpowered,