Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/884

 Rh

Fuhkien, where he died. Famous as a teacher of the Confacianism of Cho Hsi, he was the aathor of the ^ j^ ^ l^^ ^^ exegetical work on the Nine Classics. He was canonised as ^ J||, and in 1724 his tablet was placed in the Oonfncian Temple. Wei LtL ^^. Ist and 2nd cent. B.C. A clever musician, of 2285 Turkic descent, who had been brought up in China. He secured the protection of Li Ten-nien, and was recommended by him as a suitable envoy to the Hsiung-nu. On his return he found t]iat his patron had fallen into trouble; and fearing to perish with him, he fled to the Hsiung-nu and tendered his allegiance. The latter ret^eired' him with open arms and created him Prince of "J^ Ting-ling. See Su Wu.

Wei F'o 1^ ^. 2nd cent. B.C. Son of an eminent musician 2286 under the First Emperor. Wishing to obtain an introduction to Ts'ao Ts'an, he daily swept the door in front of his secretaries' quarters, until at length one of the latter, struck by his strange behaviour, introduced him to the great man, who at once gaye him a post.

Wei Po-yang Mi^^ 0^- ^ JL • H. H 3f -T* ). 2nd cent. 2287

A.D. A Taoist philosopher and alchemist. In A.D. 121 he was summoned to Court, but refused the invitation, being, as he described himself, '^a lowly man, living simply, and with no love for power and glory.*' Reputed author of the ^ ^ ^ (see 2288), which is professedly a commentary .upon the Canon of Changes, but is in reality a treatise upon the concoction of pills of immortality. He is said to have ultimately succeeded in compounding such pills, and to have administered one by way of experiment to a dog, which at once fell down dead. He then swallowed one himself, with the same result; whereupon his elder brother, vrith firm faith in the drug and undismayed by what he saw before him, swallowed a third pill. He too fell down dead, and this shook the confidence of the

55