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At 8e?en jears of age he was highly skilled ia composition, and able to converse upon serious subjects. At eleven, the Emperor sent for him to Court. He graduated as chin shihj and ultimately rose to be a sub-Ohaucellor of the Han-lin College and was employed in preparing the. dynastic annals. But he fell into disfavour for refusing to draft a Decree setting up the new Empress of the Emperor Ch§n Tsung; and his rivals, Ch'dn P^^ng-nien and Wang Ch4n-jo secured his dismissal. By 1018 he had again risen to be Vice President of the Board of Works. Foreseeing an early death, he sought to escape 'the inevitable by giving himself the cognomen above, which means length of years. His numerous miscellaneous writings are mostiy to be found in the two collections entitled ^ ^ and gf|| ^ ^ . Canonised as ^ ^. See ICou Chun.

Tang I-ch'ing ^ — - ;^ (T. Jg ^). Died A.D. 1530. A native 2388 of Pa-ling in Hunan, who graduated as chin shih in 1472 and rose by 1502 to be Vice President of the Censorate. Appointed Governor of Shensi, he defended the frontier so well that in 1507 he received supreme command of the Eansuh and Shensi armies. His plan of an additional wall, and of fortifying certain points, was approved, and funds were issued; but the hostility of Liu Chin forced him to retire, and he was prosecuted for wasting public. money and thrown into prison. Three years later, while in command against the rebel Prince of ^ ^ An-hua, he conspired with the eunuch ^ ^ Chang Yung, and the two effected Liu Chin*s overthrow. He ultimately rose to be President of the Board of Civil Office, but his opposition to Chang Ts'ung brought about his downfall, and he was degraded for accepting money from the younger brother of Chang Tung in return for writing the epitaph of the latter who had been dead for some years. Shame and mortification developed an abscess in his back, and he died declaring in his last memorial that his name had been so defiled that he could not rest