Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/883

864

was given when his father's intellect was clear, the second when already dulled by approaching dissolution. Some time afterwards, being engaged in battle with the Ch4us, he defeated them utterly and took prisoner ^ [^ Tn Hui, the strong man of Ch4n, thanks to an old man who appeared on the field and twisted the stalks of grass in such a way as to impede the latter^s movements. This old man afterwards appeared to Wei E'o in a dream and said, '*I am the father of the concubine whom you saved from a dreadfol death, and thus I ha?e rewarded you!"

2282 Wei Ku ^ @. A man of the T^ang dynasty, said to hare seen the old man of the moon sitting under a tree and turning over the leaves of the book in which all marriages are registered at the birth of one of the predestined couple. He also saw the bag con- taining the invisible red silk thread by which their feet are tied together. The old man declared that Wei Eu would marry the ill- favoured infant daughter of a certain woman who sold vegetables, whereupon Wei hired an assassin to kill the* child. The m£Ean missed his aim, and only succeeded in inflicting a severe blow over the eyebrow. Fourteen years later Wei married a beautiful girl who wore a gold plate over one eyebrow, and on making enquiries he discovered that she was no other than the child whose union with him had been so strangely foretold.

2283 Wei Liao fti^' ^*^ ^e»*- B.C. A native of the Wei State, who studied under Euei-ku Tzti, and wrote a work on the art of war.

2284 Wei Liao-weng i| J # (T. || 3^ . H.^ llj ). A.D. 1178- 1237. A native of ^ ^ P'u-chiang in SstLch'uan, whose real name was ^ Eao, which was changed to Wei upon his adoption by a man of that name. He graduated as chin shih in 1199, and after a chequered career rose in 1231 to be President of the Board of Bites, though owing to Court intrigues he was sent to serve in