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so stingy that he eyen counted the grains of rice for his dinner and weighed the firewood for cooking them:

Wei Chung-lisien ^ J®. ^. Died A.D, 1627. A native of 2270 ^ ^ Sn-ning in Ohihli, of profligate character, who made himself a eunnch and changed his name to ^ jig jg Li Chin-chnng. Entering the palace he managed by bribery to get into the seryice of the mother of the future Emperor Hsi Tsungi and became the paramour of that weak monarch's wet-nurse, E'o Shih. The pair gained the Emperor's affection to an extraordinary degree, and Wei, an ignorant brute, was the real ruler of China during the reign of Hsi Tsung. He always took care to present memorials and other State papers when his Majesty was engrossed in carpentry, and the Emperor would pretend to know all about the question and tell Wei to deal with it. Aided by unworthy Censors, he gradually drove all loyal men from o£5ce, and put his opponents to cruel and ignominious deaths. He persuaded Hsi Tsung to enrol a division of eunuch troops, ten thousand strong, armed with muskets; while by causing the Empress to have a miscarriage, his paramour cleared his way to the throne. Many o£Scials espoused his cause, and the infatuated sovereign never wearied of loading him with favours. In 1626 temples were erected to him in all the provinces except Fuhkien, his image received Imperial honours, and he was styled. ^ -^ ^ Nine Thousand Years, i.e. only one thousand less than tHe Emperor himself. All successes were ascribed to his influence, a Grand Secretary declaring that his virtue had actually caused the appearance of a ^'unicorn** in Shantung. In 1627 he was likened in a memorial to Confucius, and if was decreed that he should be worshipped with the Sage in the Imperial Academy. His hopes were overthrown by the death of Hsi Tsung, whose successor promptly dismissed him. He hanged himself to escape trial, and his corpse was disembowelled. His paramour was executed,