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 BOOK THE FIFTH THE SUNG DYNASTY (A.D. 900-1200)

CHAPTER I

THE INVENTION OF BLOCK-PRINTING

THE T'ang dynasty was brought to an end in 907, and during the succeeding fifty years the empire experienced no fewer than five separate dynastic changes. It was not a time favourable to literary effort ; still production was not absolutely at a standstill, and some minor names have come down to us.

Of CHANG Pi, for instance, of the later Chou dynasty, little is known, except that he once presented a volumi- nous memorial to his sovereign in the hope of staving off political collapse. The memorial, we are told, was much admired, but the advice contained in it was not acted upon. These few lines of his occur in many a poetical garland :

" After parting, dreams possessed me,

and I wandered you know where, And we sat in the verandah,

and you sang the sweet old air.

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